A year ago, the Mental Health Program of the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) launched its psychiatric and psychological care teleconsultation program.
The Mental Health Program of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM began offering remote consultations for the university community in March 2020. According to the same institution in the first 12 months of adopting this modality, they have offered a total of 12,619 teleconsultations.
Of the consultations, 10,462 belonged to the Mental Health Clinic, 1,438 corresponded to the Comprehensive Addiction Care Clinic and 791 to the Gender Clinic.
The Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health (DPSM) reported that the most common problems treated through this modality are related to anxiety disorders, depression, domestic violence and drug abuse.
“Given the lockdown, one of the greatest needs has been mental health care, so suspending the service was not feasible and we set out to provide quality consultations,” said Dr. Benjamin Guerrero López, head of the DPSM and coordinator of the Mental Health Program Clinic.
Dr. Guerrero López, detailed that, from March to August 2020, his department provided more than 1,500 continuous psychiatric consultations generally through telemedicine. However, the increase in requests made it necessary to redesign the project in August.
“It was in August when a new approach of normality was given to the consultations, for that reason the platform has been in constant improvement and adaptation,” explained Jorge Camacho Morales, head of Development of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DIB).
Learn more about this program and how to schedule an appointment by clicking on the following links: http://paginas.facmed.unam.mx/deptos/psi/index.php/2020/09/24/dpsm/
