Texas Electronic Care Network (TEC NET)
Connecting people with the right level of mental health care at the right time
TEC NET is a research project that uses technology to improve access to mental health care in North Texas. It begins by finding where care is hardest to reach and moves from there to testing digital care in those communities.
The Plan
1. Map the gaps
A public tool identifies where mental health care is scarce, by county and zip code. Available now.
2. Test digital care
A pilot study will test whether low-barrier, scalable digital services can reach communities where traditional care is limited or unavailable. Coming next.
3. Train the workforce
The curriculum in the state’s newest behavioral health doctoral program has been expanded to include service access research, computational assessment, and scalable digital interventions, and training has begun. Underway.
Step 1: Mental Health Care Deserts
Some neighborhoods in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have mental health care within reach, and others have very little. Reach is the first requirement of any evidence-based treatment, because a person cannot receive care that does not exist within a practical distance. This map integrates public data on population, demographics, poverty, and the locations of mental health facilities. Use the County and Zip Code tabs to explore a specific area.
The tool also appears on the Texas NABORS Data Dashboards page. This step is a project of the CARE Lab and the COMPASS Lab.