Topic 10: Rural Health
Relevance to the underserved issue:
Although rural areas have a large proportion of individuals who are in need of psychiatric care, there are often too few providers to deliver care to them.
Summary of key information:
Accessing quality mental health services in rural areas has been an ongoing concern. The New Freedom Commission report noted that rural areas have the same or a higher proportion of individuals with mental health needs as urban areas, yet there are significantly fewer providers per population group and region, especially in farming areas and where there are migrant workers.
There are several issues that have made access to psychiatric care in rural areas a challenge. First, the data shows that a large proportion of mental health professionals choose to practice in urban areas and their suburbs, as opposed to in rural areas. Also, states that do not have large medical centers, medical school or residency programs have difficulty recruiting psychiatrists. Furthermore, in rural areas it is not uncommon for there to be a significant amount of stigma placed on individuals accessing mental health care. Finally, funding for mental health care in rural areas is more difficult to obtain both in the private and public sectors than it is for more heavily populated areas.
In order to increase access to mental health treatment in rural areas many new programs, which are highlighted on this website, are being established. Especially prevalent are those that provide collaborative services to primary care physicians and that make use of telepsychiatry.
Rural Health Outreach Grant: A 3 year demonstration grant for health service delivery. Information about the grant program is given at http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/funding/outreach.htm. For application guidance go to http://apply.grants.gov/apply/GetGrantFromFedgrants?cfda=&opportunity=HRSA-09-002&competitionid=
Relevant Web Resources