With VA telehealth, patients can get care from their healthcare providers without having to travel. And with the mobile telehealth unit, there is more access than ever. Patients can get checkups and treatment, talk about their personal care and more—from inside their own home, the mobile unit, or elsewhere. Read this month’s spotlight to learn more about this innovative way of providing access to care from Cheyenne VA Health Center’s Izabella Jackson.
Recover Wyoming is a non-profit and federally designated Recovery Community Organization (RCO) and is currently the only RCO in Wyoming. Their focus is to help people find, get, and stay in long-term recovery from substance use disorder. Recover Wyoming provide the Recovery Community Center, which is a safe, sober place for people to come and get information and resources, talk to someone about recovery, or just to have a cup of coffee. They also provide peer-to-peer recovery support services through our Recovery Coach and Telephone Recovery Support (TRS) programs.
Lana Mahoney has been a Wyoming resident the majority of her life and a Cheyenne resident for over 30 years. Her background is in Behavioral Health and Recovery Support services. She began her journey with Recover Wyoming in 2011 as a volunteer and has since worked for the organization in various roles including; Administrative Assistant, Laramie County Veterans Treatment Court Coordinator, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) Case Manager, and Peer Specialist Training Coordinator. She has been instrumental in furthering the Peer Specialist profession in the state.
Wyoming Telehealth Network joined the forces with the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) as an endorsing partner, to promote the first ever Telehealth Awareness Week™ -September 19-25, 2021. We are highlighting and reinforcing the central role that telehealth now plays in the delivery of healthcare services. Dr. JJ Chen of Cheyenne helped promote this week by submitting this opinion editorial to newspapers statewide with great success. You can read more here.
This year will mark the first-ever annual Telehealth Awareness Week from September 19-25, 2021, hosted by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). The Wyoming Telehealth Network is excited to learn about how to help our colleagues participate in Wyoming. We recently caught up with Ann Mond Johnson, the CEO of the ATA, to learn more about how this event came to be and what we can expect from the week of awareness.
Cole Weaver is an orthodontist at Smile Doctors Braces, diplomat of the American Board of Orthodontics, and a lover of all things Wyoming. Dr. Weaver is no stranger to the benefits of teledentistry. He is an advocate for the ability to help patients get access to needed dental care they deserve, both affordably and conveniently. Modernizing access to dentistry is slow coming, but it is proven to increase access to care using innovative technological advancements including Artificial Intelligence (AI), web applications and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). These exciting developments are helping patients across Wyoming get the access they need without multiple office visits and added costs.
Did you know mini-grants are now available to help Wyoming families offset the costs of technology for their children’s telehealth medical appointments? Overcoming obstacles to telehealth can be challenging, but Wendy Warren, Program Manager at the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND), found a way to help. By applying for a grant to Family Voices, she was able to secure funding to provide devices to families who need them to access telehealth. But after working with families who needed access, it seemed that there was one more barrier to surmount—internet access. The team at WIND, including Kayleigh Schermerhorn (pictured here with helpful Verizon® Wireless staff) went to work to find an innovative solution to address this need with the funds available. The result? WIND now has nineteen Verizon® tablets with pre-paid cellular data service to provide direct support to Wyoming families in need of telehealth access. Read more here about how to access these devices.
Jennifer Knerr is the Athletic Trainer for the University of Wyoming’s Campus Recreation & Wellness Center. She has worked as an athletic trainer for over 20 years in various settings including collegiate and high school athletics, an outpatient physical therapy clinic, and as an instructor for Sports Medicine related classes in both the high school and university settings. She shared her telehealth expertise in managing concussions at a recent conference and the WyTN caught up with her afterwards to learn more about her inventive telehealth work.
It’s no question that Vivian Swallow has been making a deep impact in her community throughout her career. Helping to implement a telehealth program in Lame Deer, Montana, is just one of her many accomplishments. Currently, Vivian is the care coordinator in Arapahoe, Wyoming, at the Wind River Family and Community Health Care. The mission of the clinic is to provide primary care, traditional healing, preventative care, and wellness promotion to all members of the community as intended by the Creator. Vivian is also an engaged and active member of the Wyoming Telehealth Network, and is passionate about improving health outcomes through telehealth.
This month features two Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) who are innovating in their field by utilizing telehealth.
Chelsea Paulus exemplifies Wyoming’s entrepreneurial spirit as she filled a gap in services by creating her own small business call Connect Speech Therapy. She now employs a small team of SLPs and SLPAs who provide services in four school districts across the state. Additionally, her team works with individuals seeking services outside of the school setting, both virtually and in-person, at their Sheridan clinic. Karen Richard wanted to offer her SLP services in Laramie, but there were no job openings, so she took her talents to telehealth and was able to stay in the community she loved while doing what she loved.
Both of these women charted their own paths in their careers while helping others learn more about how telehealth can open doors for patient treatment, career growth and entrepreneurship.
Janette Mydland runs the Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program at the Sheridan office at Northern Wyoming Mental Health Center. At the beginning of the pandemic, telehealth seemed like a daunting task, but fast forward to the present, and Janette is the Wyoming Telehealth Network’s number one Zoom user this month with 25,500 minutes of meetings and counting!
