By Alex Brown
Multimedia Journalist, Inside Indiana Business 

FORT WAYNE — The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has selected the Parkview Research Center in Fort Wayne for a research grant related to mental health. The research will focus on using telehealth to address mental health needs of adolescents and young adults.

Parkview describes telehealth as the delivery of health related services and information at a distance via telecommunications technologies. The research center’s proposal stemmed from a 2013 report which showed Indiana had the highest rate of teenagers who have considered suicide and the second-highest rate of teens who have attempted suicide.

The research will examine the role, benefits and disadvantages of telehealth in delivering those mental health services. 

“The stress of transitioning from childhood to adolescence and then from high school to college, trade school or full-time employment can be a trigger for depression or other serious mental health issues,” said Tammy Toscos, co-leader of the project. “Given the circumstances of teens in the state of Indiana and the strong community partners who have already committed to participate in this research, we believe our findings will be quickly translated to improvements in the mental healthcare delivery system.”

Parkview says some of the telehealth technologies include video conferencing, Internet-based applications and chat software, interactive web sites, social media, text message-based interventions and mobile technologies. The project will examine how adolescents and young adults in Indiana identify reliable sources of information related to mental health care choices and their perception of telehealth as an alternative.

Source: Inside Indiana Business