Limited Available Resources for Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population

Limited Available Resources for Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay

The incidence of mental health disorders is rising nationally, despite the growing awareness of the implications and complications associated with mental health diseases. Around one in four families have a member with a mental disorder. The risk of these disorders is higher in particular groups like children, adolescents, poor people, abused women, marginalized, the unemployed, the uneducated, victims of violence, refugees, migrants, and the neglected elderly. Individuals in rural communities often experience worse mental health outcomes due to substantial disparities (Tsai & Tomlinson, 2015). Around 2.6 million rural adults experience depression at some point in their life(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay). Effective interventions and resources are available but not equally accessible to everyone across the United States. Resource availability does not cure mental illness but is crucial for improving patients’ symptoms sustainably and enhancing effective social recovery and quality of life. Many resources are required for mental health treatment and intervention, including drugs, facilities, professionals, helplines, support systems, online resources, insurance, and peer supporters available for people with mental health resources. However, research studies highlight a shortage of these resources, especially facilities, practitioners, and drugs in rural areas. This paper addresses limited available resources for patients with mental health problems in the rural population.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

Limited Resources for Mental Health in Rural Areas

Various resources for mental health include policies and infrastructure, human resources, funding, and community resources. Accessing mental health resources is vital in successfully recovering from mental or psychological distress (Morales et al., 2020). People with mental health conditions should seek help to receive treatment and potential recovery from it. However, the rural population suffers from a lack of adequate resources, limiting care accessibility and increasing disparity in mental health outcomes(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay). Limited availability of mental health facilities, medication, and health professionals are particularly of concern among the rural populations. Unavailability of essential medicine is prevalent in these areas, significantly restricting access to depression and other mental health problems. There is a shortage of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and antiepileptic medication in primary care facilities in rural areas. The problem is accompanied by a shortage of mental health practitioners, especially those specializing in children and adolescents (Morales et al., 2020). Community-based mental health care and programs are also limited in rural areas. (Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

More than 60% of Americans living in rural areas are in zones with mental health professional shortages. Around 90% of the psychologists and psychiatrists and 80% of Masters of Social Work live and work exclusively in urban areas. More than 65% of the rural population receives mental health care in primary care facilities, and law enforcement officers are often the crisis responders. The U.S. workforce shortages are experienced chiefly in rural and low-income areas, leading to patients being put on long waitlists to receive the services they need(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay). The 65% of the population receiving mental health services in primary care facilities which often lack an appropriate integration of mental health services, may lack specific treatment for various mental health disorders like depression (Rural Health Information Hub, 2016). Most practitioners, especially behavioral health providers, choose not to work in rural areas due to billing restrictions for specific providers under Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. They may not always reimburse for their services to patients, or sometimes reimbursement rates are low, making it challenging to retain providers in rural areas with a higher Medicaid enrollment. (Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

Accessibility is different in rural areas because it is unusual to get in the facility, find a practitioner, and pay for the services a patient needs and in the time they need it. The people have no choice of quality and knowledge of their problems and challenges. Rural people travel further to receive mental health services (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018). The U.S. has an average of 30 psychologists per 100,000 people and 16 psychiatrists per 100,000 people(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay). More than 115 million people in the U.S. live in areas with health professionals’ shortages, about 1 per 30,000 people. The U.S. has an average of 9.1 psychologists per 100,000 people and 3.4% psychiatrists per 100,000 people in rural counties (Good Therapy, 2020). This shortage often occurs in rural areas due to limited funding and infrastructure. Some counties have no mental health professionals at all. An increasing concern exists over the future and the professionals at a higher risk or vulnerability to shortages, including marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, counselors, school counselors, and social workers.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

The rural population experiences significantly limited access to specialty mental health care. About 65% of nonmetropolitan counties lack psychiatrists. Lack of specialty care in these areas contributes substantially to the disparities in mental health outcomes. Despite providing economic incentives and training in rural areas, the shortage is still significant, and the primary care clinicians provide mental health services (Morales et al., 2020). About one in three clinicians working in primary care facilities offer behavioral health services to build service capacity for the underserved population. However, the outcomes are variable due to the lack of specialty care(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay). Due to limited specialty care, Americans in rural areas do not consider behavioral health services integral to preventative care. Most individuals enter mental health care with more severe, persistent, and disabling symptoms that need more intensive treatment, which is usually expensive (Morales et al., 2020). Limited specialty care also limits the diversity of care available to the rural population. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report, half of the rural counties, about 1535 counties, have no psychiatrists, social workers, or psychologists.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

Likewise, there is limited access to particular services like detoxification, a critical component in treating substance abuse. The Muskie School of Public Service reported that about 82 percent of the rural population live in areas lacking detoxification services. Only 235 detoxification providers offer services to over 60 million people living in rural America. About 60% of these providers work in settings with a radius above 100 miles. Children suffering from mental health conditions also experience limited services (Probst et al., 2018). Children in rural areas are 20% less likely to access mental health treatment than those in urban areas. Four out of five children in rural settings live in areas without a community mental health center. Despite telemedicine advancements that increase care access without the need to travel long distances, the technologies depend on communication advances in these areas, which are still a barrier. Three in 10 rural health clinics cannot access mass-market broadband to promote telemedicine.

The general availability of these resources in rural areas is limited, shown by the minimal government spending on mental health in rural areas than urban areas. The government spending for cost-effective, quality, and affordable interventions in rural populations is lower than is needed. Most available mental health care in rural areas is institutionally based, as community-based care is limited(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay). Rural mental health funding opportunities are limited and often unavailable. All health service systems operate under significant funding restrictions, but the case is worse for mental health, especially in rural areas. There has been a considerable lack of investment and prioritization of funding for mental health services over the years. Mental health services in rural areas have an unfair share of the government’s budget, despite accounting substantial burden of disease in the U.S. (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018). The U.S. spending on mental health increased to $225 billion; however, access to affordable mental health care in rural America is still deeply unequal compared to urban areas. About $211 billion in fund interventions for depression alone accounts for lost productivity and medical care.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

Nevertheless, depression remains a problem affecting around one in five Americans living in rural areas. Lack of health insurance for mental health is a problem in the rural U.S. About 24% or a quarter of the rural population are uninsured or partially insured compared to 18% in urban areas. One in five rural residents goes uninsured for an entire year, unlike one in seven in metropolitan areas. Rural Americans are less likely to acquire insurance benefits for mental health care than their urban counterparts. Many rural states have limited choices in the ACA marketplace. Also, most private insurance companies are unwilling to extend their insurance service in low-income rural areas, and those willing do not cover mental health services.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

                                                                     Conclusion       

Rural America faces significant economic and sociological struggles on a greater scale than metropolitan areas. Mental health continues to be a crisis in these areas primarily because of limited resources like professionals, facilities, medication, and funding. The rural population faces limited accessibility and availability of these resources, given that 60% of those living in areas are experiencing mental health professional shortages. Most rural people get mental health services from primary care physicians and clinicians, increasing the disparities in mental health outcomes.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

References

Good Therapy. (2020, March 26). Is there a shortage of mental health professionals in America? https://www.goodtherapy.org/for-professionals/personal-development/become-a-therapist/is-there-shortage-of-mental-health-professionals-in-america

Morales, D. A., Barksdale, C. L., & Beckel-Mitchener, A. C. (2020). A call to action to address rural mental health disparities. Journal of clinical and translational science, 4(5), 463–467. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2020.42(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, May 30). Mental health and rural America: challenges and opportunities. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/media/2018/mental-health-and-rural-america-challenges-and-opportunities

Probst, J. C., Barker, J. C., Enders, A., & Gardiner, P. (2018). The current state of child health in rural America: how context shapes children’s health. The Journal of Rural Health, 34, s3-s12.

Rural Health Information Hub. (2016, October). Barriers to mental health treatment in rural areas. https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/mental-health/1/barriers(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

Tsai, A. C., & Tomlinson, M. (2015). Inequitable and ineffective: exclusion of mental health from the post-2015 development agenda. PLoS Medicine, 12(6), e1001846.(Patients with Mental Health Problem in Rural Population Essay)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/