VPN: Intersection of Healthcare and the Workplace

What?

The Post Trauma Institute (PTI) proudly offers perhaps the most significant innovation in mental healthcare assessment and care in Louisiana: the Virtual Psych Network™, or VPN™. With VPN™, PTI can provide remote delivery of outpatient healthcare services for employers and their workforces.

Where?

PTI still offers high-quality mental healthcare services through personal office visits, but has added the convenience of online assessment and care services through telecommunication technologies, such as videoconferencing on computers and cellular phones. Using VPN™, people can interact with their doctor while riding a bus, on a break at work, or at home.

Why?

As a form of telepsychiatry, the Virtual Psych Network™ fills an important gap in mental healthcare delivery: Studies have found that 50% of people living with mental illness do not seek treatment. The same studies find that when healthcare is more affordable and accessible, people are more likely to seek outpatient healthcare treatment and begin the healing process.

Mental health issues cost employers up to one trillion dollars a year in lost productivity. VPN™ is the newest option for employers to address mental health issues experienced by their employees, and is designed to directly address:

• Presenteeism – working while sick (productivity loss resulting from real health problems.)
• Absenteeism – a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation.
• Anxiety – intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations.
• Depression – characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities.

These types of issues can cause significant impairment in daily life and loss of productivity in the workplace. Research has shown us that people will welcome help using online services such as VPN™. Like an office visit, VPN™ provides a safe, private interaction with a personal doctor without their employer being directly involved.

In summation, VPN™ offers convenience, anonymity, lower cost, and access to more specialized healthcare professionals who can help. With the treatment of mental health issues comes a better quality of life for employees and improved performance on the job. Everyone wins.