This video is the fourth of eight describing the collective impact realized through the deep commitment and radical collaboration of GW OHT partners in achieving the 2022–2025 GW OHT Strategic Priorities. Comprehensive, interdisciplinary primary care includes integrated services required to meet the needs of the population served — this includes psychiatric care. Access to psychiatric care is limited across the province. Rural communities struggle even more due to distance from larger, more urban centres where psychiatrists tend to be located. This barrier to access is partially overcome by coordinating virtual psychiatry services for residents of rural communities. This video describes the radical collaboration of GW OHT partners to develop the ‘Rural Virtual Psychiatry Clinic.’ This clinic, a local solution to a local problem, addresses a gap in service that, left unaddressed, contributes to poor patient outcomes, distress for primary care providers, and defaulting reliance on acute care services.
