ContinuumCloud recently hosted a Behavioral Health Breakfast Club featuring Dr. Rola Aamar of Relias. During this session, Rola explored how behavioral health technology has continued evolve and shape the industry. We’ve come a long way since the beginnings of behavioral health and its basis in institutionalization. Today, we’re approaching a more integrated model of whole-person care, and technology continues to help facilitate this progression.
It’s important to note that while technology opens up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities, it still has its limitations as well. Technology cannot replace the human connection and interaction that’s at the crux of behavioral health care. When used effectively, it can help enable that connection and enhance the client experience that your team is working so hard to create.
Areas Where Technology Can Help Behavioral Health Organizations
When we talk about behavioral health technology, we’re looking at a rather broad and sweeping area that encompasses everything from client engagement to operational workflows. To help take a systematic approach to understanding and prioritizing different components of behavioral health technology, we can categorize solutions by purpose:
- For clients – This includes telehealth to receive services, patient portals to access medical information, and apps and wearables for self-management.
- For providers – Behavioral health technology that can help providers includes an EHR for managing caseloads, scheduling clients, and providing telehealth services as well as training and onboarding software.
- For the organization – At the organizational level, technology solutions help address finances and revenue cycle management, reporting dashboards, population health management, and advanced analytics for measuring productivity and client outcomes.
Tech solutions that integrate multiple capabilities and allow for a seamless experience for providers and clients alike can enable organizations to deliver higher-quality care. Similarly, behavioral health technology that allows organizations to measure and report on these outcomes helps justify costs to funders and other key stakeholders while assuring your team that the steps they’re taking are having the desired effect.
Getting Started with Behavioral Health Technology
For the organization that’s just getting started investing in new technologies to support their mission, it’s important to be intentional about how the technology fits into your overarching strategy. Implementing new behavioral health technology like an EHR or HCM requires buy-in at all levels of the organization as well as a technology culture that embraces these new solutions and is committed to their ongoing success.
ContinuumCloud offers behavioral health technology that’s designed to support the complex and dynamic structure of behavioral health and human services organizations. To learn more about how our solutions can help your organization provide high-quality care and deliver on its mission, contact us today.
