Following the completion of a project to enable post-discharge text message appointment reminders for Philadelphia’s Medicaid consumers, in collaboration with the county’s Medicaid MCO and multiple community organizations, Dr. Vernig published this paper, with colleague and nurse-executive Dr. R John Repique in the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. The article summarized the project and draws on the literature in other areas of medicine suggesting the application of this technology to behavioral healthcare. At the time, little was offered in the way of tech-enabled support for Medicaid consumers. Dr. Vernig advocated for greater access to these tools – which many take for grated – among the highest-need patients as a cost-effective way to support recovery.
Abstract
Short message service (SMS), commonly referred to as text messaging, allows instantaneous communication between mobile telephones and other systems via 160-character messages. SMS has a wide reach, and thus researchers and public health officials have considered using this platform for health-related communication. Today, as our society continues to integrate components of automation in various forms and levels of human interaction, and with the increasing ubiquity of mobile technology in health care, technology-delivered health interventions such as SMS offer a creative alternative that can be a valuable tool to assist mental health patients in their own treatment and recovery and for the mental health clinicians who are responsible for providing care and its delivery.
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