What is AR Connect and How Does it Work
Guest
: Teresa Hudson, PharmD, PhD
From the Show: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
There are so many stresses in our lives today and sometimes, we need professional help to get through it all. Dr. Teresa Hudson discusses the AR Connect program at UAMS and how it can help you.
Transcription:
Evo Terra (Host): There are a lot of stresses in our lives today, from dealing with the ongoing pandemic, to financial uncertainty, to work-life balance. It's a lot, and sometimes you need professional help to get through it all. This is UAMS Health Talk, the podcast by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
I'm Evo Terra. My guest today is Dr. Teresa Hudson, Co-Director of the AR Connect Program from UAMS. Thanks for joining me today, Dr. Hudson. Let's start with the basics. What is AR Connect? And who's it for?
Teresa Hudson, PharmD, PhD (Guest): Okay. So AR Connect is a, a mental health and substance use treatment clinic. It's for urgent care, much like you used an urgent care center for when you have cold and cough and need urgent care. It's the same idea. You may have some stress due to COVID or any other thing in your life.
And this program, AR Connect provides within usually, within one business day, from the time you contact us, it's for anybody in Arkansas, anybody. When people were coming from, from Louisiana because of a hurricane, we offered care for any of them during the time they were residing in Arkansas. No money is required.
The, no insurance is required. If you happen to have insurance, we're required to send a bill to the insurance, but the grant that funds the overall program will pay any copay someone has. If someone does not have insurance, we don't issue a bill to them, but we will offer to help them try to obtain insurance while they're working with us.
Host: That sounds outstanding. But let's back up a minute. What's the origin story behind AR Connect and why is this needed?
Dr. Hudson: It's needed in part because every single county with the exception Pulaski County in central Arkansas, every single county in Arkansas is considered underserved in terms of availability of mental health care, every one. And there are about half a dozen counties that have not a single psychiatrist. And then most counties have very few psychologists. And then some have social workers, but many of those don't provide therapy. They're doing other types of social work jobs. And so the availability of mental health care is challenging in Arkansas.
Host: That's a definite reason for why we would need something. It's odd when we think about that. But of course, you know, for years we didn't really prioritize mental health care as much as we did physical health care. And so, I'm glad to see that it is changing it. At least I think it's changing it changing. In your opinion, is that changing?
Dr. Hudson: There certainly is a recognized need for it, in many people. I think there are still some groups that are uncomfortable talking about it and that's understandable, but many people who need it, immediately after they say, yeah, I probably need to see somebody, they promptly say, but there's no one in my area. And what primary care physicians tell me is that, gee, I identify people in my practice who probably need to see someone and have care beyond what I could give them, what the primary care doctor could give them, but it takes six or eight months to get into the psychologist in my area. And so this way is a way to much like an urgent care clinic for physical health, one can call, there's a one 800 number for the rest of the state and a local number for central Arkansas. Individuals in Arkansas can call that number. It's open 24/7, indicate they need care. A little information will be gathered from them, like how to contact them and so on what their name is, that kind of thing.
And the nurse that answers that call, will set them up with an appointment while they're on the phone, at that first call. And usually that is within one working day. So if it's Friday that you call Friday night, then you will probably not be able to get an appointment until Monday. But other, but usually it's within one working day, which is dramatically better than six months.
Host: Yeah. Orders of magnitude better. That is significantly better. I'm curious. I mean, it sounds great. Clearly needed. It's good that people can get access to health care, mental health care that they couldn't previously, much quicker. The goals and objectives behind this. Are we meeting them or are people using the service? How's it going?
Dr. Hudson: So we are pretty excited that we have reached the point that, we had multiple positions available to hire a therapist and we would only hire a therapist as we needed them. And we now are about to hire our last position. So we're about to be all the way to capacity terms of the number clients. And I'm also excited that includes expanded hours so that now we have hours on Saturday that if someone needs a Saturday appointment, we have that available. So it, we have really worked on improving the hours to make it available at a time that's convenient for clients, not just convenient for the way a clinic would normally be run.
Host: Sure. Sure.
Dr. Hudson: We've had over 1500 individuals call us and we've ended up providing care for about a thousand people. We would really like to increase that and we have a couple efforts underway including this one to get the word out. So I'm excited to be talking to you today because no other state that we've been able to find, even states who obtain grant funding similar to what we have are not using their money in this way. So as far as I can tell, no other state has a resource where you can simply call a phone number and get an appointment for mental health care and if, mostly, we use social worker therapists who are amazing, but we have psychiatrists available if people need a higher level of care, if they need prescription meds, whatever, we're prepared to do that.
Host: What do you see as the future of AR Connect for this coming up year end and beyond?
Dr. Hudson: So we have funding definitely until August of 22. We think we may have funding until August of 23. In the meantime, we're building financial models to see if we can find a way to sustain it. And we're also looking into additional grant funds from a variety of sources to try to sustain this program because we believe in it.
We have some amazing stories of people that have received care here and have given us permission to share those stories. One was an individual who had always been a really heavy drinker, but the beginning of COVID he lost his job and was at home and supposed to be caring for his seven year old son. And he came to us and he said, you know, he said, now I'm drinking more than ever. And I'm supposed to be caring for my son and yet all the changes in COVID and whatever had really brought forth some problems that this gentleman experienced when he was a child. But when we last spoke with him, he had been sober for over six months. He was starting to get back in the job market and he was homeschooling his son. He said, you know, the great thing is I could just call and get that help right when I needed it. And he said better yet. I didn't worry that anybody was judging me because I didn't have to wait in a waiting room. Nobody saw my car at the clinic. I just had to call.
So that's been pretty exciting and we had one woman who was a victim of spousal abuse, who we helped get some care and change her situation. And she's like, I'm the leader of a self-help group at one of the clinics in town, women's shelters. We feel like it's really successful at a person level. Our only concern, I guess we have two, is can we build a model that we can sustain longterm? And the second is how can we get the word out and help more people? Because we know that there are more people that could use our services than, than what we're hearing from. And so we want to get the word out about that.
Host: Absolutely. Well, that definitely sounds like a positive model that we want to continue to see move forward. Dr. Hudson, are there any things you want to talk about that I didn't specifically ask you about?
Dr. Hudson: Yeah, one thing I think I wanted to say was that we have created the program to be very flexible. And that is if you call us and you know, you're really stressed out and you're having some depression symptoms or whatever, but the big problem is that you've lost your job and you're worried about how you're going to pay your rent.
Host: Yeah.
Dr. Hudson: We have case managers available, we call that needing resources and we have case managers available to help you hunt down resources. So we will hook you up with a therapist, but also with someone to help you hunt down, okay, how do I look for a job in my particular area of the state? How do I get some rental assistance in my area of the state? So it's extremely flexible. We work really hard to meet the need of the particular client. Not just try to make it, you know, this is the procedure we use and we run everybody through like a set protocol.
Host: Yeah.
Dr. Hudson: I wanted to emphasize that it's really, very much designed to meet people's care. And the other thing I should tell you is that we'll see people six or seven times for free. And if it looks like they're going to need long-term care, we will start working with them, that is care over a longer period of time, not longterm care like in a nursing home.
And if they need long-term care, then we will work with them to, before their visits run out with us, to start connecting them so that they can start their next level of care with their next therapist easily and know what's going, you know, know what's going on. You know, what kind of care they've had previously. So, it's really hard to make for a seamless what we call a warm handoff to clinicians for those that need it for a longer period of time.
Host: Well, it sounds like AR Connect is definitely going above and beyond. Dr. Teresa Hudson, thanks for your time today.
Dr. Hudson: Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here.
Host: And thank you for listening. You'll find more information about AR Connect on our website at uams.edu. This has been UAMS Health Talk, the podcast by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I'm Evo Terra. Stay well.
Evo Terra (Host): There are a lot of stresses in our lives today, from dealing with the ongoing pandemic, to financial uncertainty, to work-life balance. It's a lot, and sometimes you need professional help to get through it all. This is UAMS Health Talk, the podcast by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
I'm Evo Terra. My guest today is Dr. Teresa Hudson, Co-Director of the AR Connect Program from UAMS. Thanks for joining me today, Dr. Hudson. Let's start with the basics. What is AR Connect? And who's it for?
Teresa Hudson, PharmD, PhD (Guest): Okay. So AR Connect is a, a mental health and substance use treatment clinic. It's for urgent care, much like you used an urgent care center for when you have cold and cough and need urgent care. It's the same idea. You may have some stress due to COVID or any other thing in your life.
And this program, AR Connect provides within usually, within one business day, from the time you contact us, it's for anybody in Arkansas, anybody. When people were coming from, from Louisiana because of a hurricane, we offered care for any of them during the time they were residing in Arkansas. No money is required.
The, no insurance is required. If you happen to have insurance, we're required to send a bill to the insurance, but the grant that funds the overall program will pay any copay someone has. If someone does not have insurance, we don't issue a bill to them, but we will offer to help them try to obtain insurance while they're working with us.
Host: That sounds outstanding. But let's back up a minute. What's the origin story behind AR Connect and why is this needed?
Dr. Hudson: It's needed in part because every single county with the exception Pulaski County in central Arkansas, every single county in Arkansas is considered underserved in terms of availability of mental health care, every one. And there are about half a dozen counties that have not a single psychiatrist. And then most counties have very few psychologists. And then some have social workers, but many of those don't provide therapy. They're doing other types of social work jobs. And so the availability of mental health care is challenging in Arkansas.
Host: That's a definite reason for why we would need something. It's odd when we think about that. But of course, you know, for years we didn't really prioritize mental health care as much as we did physical health care. And so, I'm glad to see that it is changing it. At least I think it's changing it changing. In your opinion, is that changing?
Dr. Hudson: There certainly is a recognized need for it, in many people. I think there are still some groups that are uncomfortable talking about it and that's understandable, but many people who need it, immediately after they say, yeah, I probably need to see somebody, they promptly say, but there's no one in my area. And what primary care physicians tell me is that, gee, I identify people in my practice who probably need to see someone and have care beyond what I could give them, what the primary care doctor could give them, but it takes six or eight months to get into the psychologist in my area. And so this way is a way to much like an urgent care clinic for physical health, one can call, there's a one 800 number for the rest of the state and a local number for central Arkansas. Individuals in Arkansas can call that number. It's open 24/7, indicate they need care. A little information will be gathered from them, like how to contact them and so on what their name is, that kind of thing.
And the nurse that answers that call, will set them up with an appointment while they're on the phone, at that first call. And usually that is within one working day. So if it's Friday that you call Friday night, then you will probably not be able to get an appointment until Monday. But other, but usually it's within one working day, which is dramatically better than six months.
Host: Yeah. Orders of magnitude better. That is significantly better. I'm curious. I mean, it sounds great. Clearly needed. It's good that people can get access to health care, mental health care that they couldn't previously, much quicker. The goals and objectives behind this. Are we meeting them or are people using the service? How's it going?
Dr. Hudson: So we are pretty excited that we have reached the point that, we had multiple positions available to hire a therapist and we would only hire a therapist as we needed them. And we now are about to hire our last position. So we're about to be all the way to capacity terms of the number clients. And I'm also excited that includes expanded hours so that now we have hours on Saturday that if someone needs a Saturday appointment, we have that available. So it, we have really worked on improving the hours to make it available at a time that's convenient for clients, not just convenient for the way a clinic would normally be run.
Host: Sure. Sure.
Dr. Hudson: We've had over 1500 individuals call us and we've ended up providing care for about a thousand people. We would really like to increase that and we have a couple efforts underway including this one to get the word out. So I'm excited to be talking to you today because no other state that we've been able to find, even states who obtain grant funding similar to what we have are not using their money in this way. So as far as I can tell, no other state has a resource where you can simply call a phone number and get an appointment for mental health care and if, mostly, we use social worker therapists who are amazing, but we have psychiatrists available if people need a higher level of care, if they need prescription meds, whatever, we're prepared to do that.
Host: What do you see as the future of AR Connect for this coming up year end and beyond?
Dr. Hudson: So we have funding definitely until August of 22. We think we may have funding until August of 23. In the meantime, we're building financial models to see if we can find a way to sustain it. And we're also looking into additional grant funds from a variety of sources to try to sustain this program because we believe in it.
We have some amazing stories of people that have received care here and have given us permission to share those stories. One was an individual who had always been a really heavy drinker, but the beginning of COVID he lost his job and was at home and supposed to be caring for his seven year old son. And he came to us and he said, you know, he said, now I'm drinking more than ever. And I'm supposed to be caring for my son and yet all the changes in COVID and whatever had really brought forth some problems that this gentleman experienced when he was a child. But when we last spoke with him, he had been sober for over six months. He was starting to get back in the job market and he was homeschooling his son. He said, you know, the great thing is I could just call and get that help right when I needed it. And he said better yet. I didn't worry that anybody was judging me because I didn't have to wait in a waiting room. Nobody saw my car at the clinic. I just had to call.
So that's been pretty exciting and we had one woman who was a victim of spousal abuse, who we helped get some care and change her situation. And she's like, I'm the leader of a self-help group at one of the clinics in town, women's shelters. We feel like it's really successful at a person level. Our only concern, I guess we have two, is can we build a model that we can sustain longterm? And the second is how can we get the word out and help more people? Because we know that there are more people that could use our services than, than what we're hearing from. And so we want to get the word out about that.
Host: Absolutely. Well, that definitely sounds like a positive model that we want to continue to see move forward. Dr. Hudson, are there any things you want to talk about that I didn't specifically ask you about?
Dr. Hudson: Yeah, one thing I think I wanted to say was that we have created the program to be very flexible. And that is if you call us and you know, you're really stressed out and you're having some depression symptoms or whatever, but the big problem is that you've lost your job and you're worried about how you're going to pay your rent.
Host: Yeah.
Dr. Hudson: We have case managers available, we call that needing resources and we have case managers available to help you hunt down resources. So we will hook you up with a therapist, but also with someone to help you hunt down, okay, how do I look for a job in my particular area of the state? How do I get some rental assistance in my area of the state? So it's extremely flexible. We work really hard to meet the need of the particular client. Not just try to make it, you know, this is the procedure we use and we run everybody through like a set protocol.
Host: Yeah.
Dr. Hudson: I wanted to emphasize that it's really, very much designed to meet people's care. And the other thing I should tell you is that we'll see people six or seven times for free. And if it looks like they're going to need long-term care, we will start working with them, that is care over a longer period of time, not longterm care like in a nursing home.
And if they need long-term care, then we will work with them to, before their visits run out with us, to start connecting them so that they can start their next level of care with their next therapist easily and know what's going, you know, know what's going on. You know, what kind of care they've had previously. So, it's really hard to make for a seamless what we call a warm handoff to clinicians for those that need it for a longer period of time.
Host: Well, it sounds like AR Connect is definitely going above and beyond. Dr. Teresa Hudson, thanks for your time today.
Dr. Hudson: Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here.
Host: And thank you for listening. You'll find more information about AR Connect on our website at uams.edu. This has been UAMS Health Talk, the podcast by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I'm Evo Terra. Stay well.
