Cost Feasibility and Trainee Satisfaction in Rural Telehealth Training

ABSTRACT

The current project examined cost feasibility and trainee satisfaction in the provision of behavioral health training to early intervention providers and preschool educators in rural communities. The training employed seven, three-hour intensive and dynamic telehealth interactions on evidence-based practices for children with autism spectrum disorder. These trainings were provided to multi-disciplinary rural telehealth audiences and an on-site face-to-face audience simultaneously. In conducting a cost analysis of the trainings, we found that providing teleconferenced training to rural areas was cost effective for rural trainees, rural agencies, and the trainers. In addition the study found that while decreasing the costs of providing behavioral health training to rural communities and providers, the interactive broadband telehealth participants were as satisfied with the training content and platform as the participants that received the face-to-face training. The poster will present findings based on comparison between the control (face to face) and the experimental groups (telehealth groups), on the interaction of cost feasibility and trainee satisfaction. We will review specific cost analyses, major lesions learned, and satisfaction data derived from the current study. We will review future directions of ongoing research efforts.