•June 8, 2022•
By Tammie Sloup
Farm Week

The sea of dark purple on a map of Illinois counties told a concerning story.
Most of the counties were dark purple, indicating a shortage of mental and behavioral health providers in those areas. Only a handful of counties, mostly in Cook County and the collar counties, had no shortage or partial shortages.
But it’s not just an Illinois issue. Mental health care in rural areas throughout the U.S. is in crisis.
Heather Whetsell, Southern Illinois University Medicine Population Science & Policy administrative director, presented findings of a yearlong study into mental health care in rural areas during the National Rural Health Association’s (NRHA) Annual Rural Health Conference. The research was conducted by the NRHA Rural Health Fellows mental health workgroup.
Barriers to mental health care in rural America are driven by three factors: availability of health care, access and acceptability, the fellows found.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.