Rural populations experience mental health issues just like any other population, but mental health care in rural areas is lagging far behind the care in other communities. Incidence of major depression and suicide among teens is higher in rural populations than in urban ones. There is a glaring lack of mental health services available to those populations, though. Of the approximately 1,700 federally-designated mental health professional shortage areas, over 85% are rural. The National Advisory Committee on Rural Health reported that there entire counties in rural areas that lack any psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers.
On top of sparse availability of providers, rural populations also suffer from inadequate or non-existent health insurance coverage. Workers in these areas are often self-employed or part of small businesses, and as a result only 61% of the people are insured through their employers, compared to 72% in urban areas. There are a few ways to help fix these problems. For one, increased adoption of telemedicine can make it easier to reach patients in sparsely populated areas. Federal funds for improving rural broadband access would be needed to be spent first, though. Also, as part of larger health care reform legislation there should be an effort to provide insurance options that include mental health coverage for rural workers, who are all too often left without the benefit packages that their urban counterparts enjoy.
Read the report on the issue here (PDF) and see two news stories here and here.
