MEMO: Change to Telemedicine Service

TO: Health Care Providers in Niagara

FROM: Niagara Region Mental Health, Niagara Region Public Health

REFERENCE: Change to Telemedicine Service

DATE: June 2, 2022

Over the past few years, Niagara Region Mental Health (NRMH) has been reviewing the Telemedicine service in consultation with Ontario Health West and Niagara Health. It has been challenging for the Niagara system to provide timely access to psychiatric consultation for residents of Niagara therefore NRMH has been exploring opportunities to improve efficiencies.

Telemedicine resources

Effective July 15, 2022, Niagara Health Centralized Access to Psychiatry Service (CAPS) will be the single point of referral for psychiatric consultations. NRMH will no longer be offering their own Telemedicine services. Resources will be divested to (CAPS) at Niagara Health.
- CAPS provides assessment, consultation, and recommendations by a psychiatrist or nurse practitioner back to the family physician or other primary care provider
- Services include diagnostic clarification, medication review, and referral to outpatient and/or other community programming
- To be eligible, patients must be between the ages of 18 and 65
- Services are available in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls or Welland

How this change impacts your patients

NRMH will be working diligently to ensure all patients already referred to the Telemedicine service and engaged with the Telemedicine team at NRMH will be seen by psychiatry
For those patients they are unable to provide service for, a referral to CAPS will be facilitated. The patient’s family physician or primary care provider will receive a fax indicating the referral was redirected.
All other NRMH Services will remain unchanged. Continue to use the form on the website (online or fax) to refer patients to NRMH.

Physician action

Effective immediately, no further referrals to the Telemedicine service at NRMH should be submitted
Referrals to CAPS can only be made by a family physician or nurse practitioner who will follow up with recommendations provided by the CAPS consulting psychiatrist or nurse practitioner
- The CAPS referral form can be printed and faxed to: 905-704-4420
Alternatively, you may request an e‑consult via the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN)
- The Ontario eConsult program leverages a secure web-based tool that allows physicians and nurse practitioners timely access to specialist advice for all patients, often eliminating the need for a patient referral
- For information on how to access e-consults, please visit OTN eConsult

More information

For any questions about the CAPS program or referral process, please call 905-378-4647, ext. 49613
To reach NRMH call 905-688-2854 ext. 7353. Calls are answered Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.