Effect of a behavioural health and specialty care telemedicine programme on goal attainment for youths in juvenile detention

We conducted a pre-post study of the effect of a telepsychiatry counselling service on youths housed in three juvenile detention facilities. In the first year of the telemedicine programme, 321 psychiatry consultations were conducted via telemedicine; in the second year of the programme, 573 psychiatry consultations were conducted. Records for 190 students were then examined by two raters. The total number of behavioural goals for each adolescent increased from 8.2 in the pre-telemedicine year to 8.7 in the first year of telemedicine and then to 10.0 in the second year (P < 0.05). In Year 2 of the study, subjects also had a significantly higher number of goals in four of the five categories: education, family, health and social skills (P < 0.05). Although other changes at the youth detention facilities or in the juvenile justice system may have been partly responsible for the effects observed, the study suggests that telemedicine may be useful for improving the rate of attainment of goals associated with family relations and personality/behaviour.