Rural communities face unique access barriers to mental health services, such as shortages of mental health providers, long travel distances, and high rates of stigma regarding mental health treatment. This results in rural residents relying more heavily on primary care providers (PCP) and acute care hospitals to meet their mental health needs. Integrating primary care and mental health services is one strategy to improve access in rural communities. “The integration of mental health services in primary care settings improves PCP’s efficiency by allowing them to see more patients and providing access to mental health clinicians who can spend more time addressing patients’ mental health needs.”
This brief examines mental health staffing patterns, mental health services provided by critical access hospital-based rural health clinics, reimbursement, and strategies for integrating mental health services.