Tele-behavioral Health in Emergency Departments

Despite significant advances in the field of psychiatry after the launch of various psychiatric drugs in the 1990s and 2000s, mental health in the US is deteriorating. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, suicide rates are at a record high and substance abuse—particularly opiate addiction—has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths during 2021—a 28% increase over the same period the prior year.