Abstract Body

Telepsychiatry is the application of telemedicine to the psychiatry services. The effectiveness of telepsychiatry depends on multiple factors, therefore, it had been rarely used by psychiatrists in Thailand. Nevertheless, the sudden pandemic in 2019 resulted in travel restriction and the disruption of mental health services’ accessibilities. Hence, Thai psychiatric hospitals have mandatorily offered telemedicine as an alternative option to the patients.
In the early phase, the services were struggling in every hospital. Since there was no standard guideline, each setting had to design their individual telepsychiatry form. The applied devices and telemedicine platform were various in different hospitals. Nonetheless, the rapid adoption of technology could maintain the effective treatment to the patients. Shortly after that, telemedicine was legalized, and the regulation was launched. The statistical data related to telepsychiatry has been gathered from all public mental health hospitals in Thailand. The information was carefully evaluated and implemented into the best practice for telepsychiatry in Thailand. The most currently secure and effective telepsychiatry program application has also been created and is going to be applied in all public psychiatric hospitals soon.
Although the covid-19 situation in Thailand has been much improved, telepsychiatry is still widely used. However, there are limitations, such as inadequate digital skills of some providers and standard of quality improvement. More training in telepsychiatry and research in the field should be done in Thailand to deal with the limitations.