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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Behavioral health

Despair as a Cause of Death: More Complex Than It First Appears
Describes studies showing urban-rural and racial/ethnic comparisons of premature deaths due to self-destructive behaviors and possible underlying social and economic factors in the communities.
Author(s): Ana V. Diez Roux
Citation: American Journal of Public Health, 107(10), 1566-1567
Date: 10/2017
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The Epidemic of Despair Among White Americans: Trends in the Leading Causes of Premature Death, 1999–2015
Evaluates trends in cause-specific death rates for adults ages 25-64, from 1999-2001 and 2013-2015. Features statistics including cause of death, age, race, and urbanization level in the United States, with breakdowns by large urban, suburban, small/medium metropolitan, and rural areas.
Author(s): Elizabeth M. Stein, Keith P. Gennuso, Donna C. Ugboaja, Patrick L. Remington
Citation: American Journal of Public Health, 107(10), 1541-1547
Date: 10/2017
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Minnesota: Filling the Mental Health Pipeline
Discusses the mental health workforce in Minnesota including the educational pipeline, the licensed and unlicensed workforce, regional issues related to recruitment, and policy implications. Includes data about degrees completed, licenses gained after graduation, and population-to-provider ratios of the mental health workforce in Minnesota by rural or isolated, small town or small rural, micropolitan or large rural, and metropolitan.
Author(s): Alessia Leibert, Teri Fritsma
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organization: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
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Using Telehealth to Identify and Manage Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Conditions in Rural Areas
Reports on an environmental scan, discussions with providers and stakeholders, and site visits regarding how telehealth supports behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment. Addresses how telehealth is used, implementation, services offered, financing and sustainability. Focuses on the implications for treating opioid use disorders in rural areas, in particular, using medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with support from telehealth. Appendix B includes site briefs from the 9 states included in the study.
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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Urban–Rural Differences in Suicide in the State of Maryland: The Role of Firearms
Analyzes suicides recorded in Maryland from 2003 to 2015 from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland to examine whether the use of firearms explain rural and urban differences in suicide rates. Includes demographic information for total suicides, firearm suicides, and nonfirearm suicides by sex, race/ethnicity, age, and rurality.
Author(s): Paul S. Nestadt, Patrick Triplett, David R. Fowler, Ramin Mojtabai
Citation: American Journal of Public Health, 107(10), 1548-1553
Date: 09/2017
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Culture and Self-Determination Provide Strength to Heal
Describes how the Seneca Nation of Indians has incorporated its culture into programs and community initiatives. Examples include school and adult Seneca language immersion programs, restoring indigenous plants, cultivating native animals, and the Seneca Strong program to address substance abuse by incorporating prevention and sobriety programming into traditional rites of passage, outdoor skills camps, and powwows. The Seneca Nation of Indians (New York) received the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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Innovations in Rural Health System Development: Federally Qualified Health Center Initiatives
Reports on Maine's Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Discusses strategies for workforce recruitment and retention, serving high-need patient populations, addressing critical community needs, and providing services that address the social determinants of health. Provides various examples of programs from across the state.
Author(s): Sara Kahn-Troster, Amanda Burgess, Andrew Coburn
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Catherine Cutler Institute, Maine Health Access Foundation
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A Toolkit for Legislative Reform: Improving Criminal Justice Responses to Mental Illness in Rural States
Toolkit details methods to improve access to mental health treatment in rural communities through the criminal justice system. Presents options for state policy reform, using South Dakota's mental illness intervention law as a case study.
Author(s): Barbara A. Pierce
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organization: Crime and Justice Institute
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In Focus: Expanding Access to Addiction Treatment Through Primary Care
Discusses the lack of access to treatment for drug addiction and presents models for implementing medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for addiction, including one in a rural community health center. Looks at barriers to expanding MAT in primary care, as well as methods for overcoming those barriers.
Author(s): Martha Hostetter, Sarah Klein
Citation: Transforming Care: Reporting on Health System Improvement
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
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Tackling the Opioid Crisis in a Rural Community
Discusses a partnership between a rural hospital physician and the director of a community counseling center to establish a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction in rural Maine. Presents the program's support structure, as well as the advantages of having an integrated treatment approach.
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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