Rural Mental Health Barriers Remain for Rural Areas

Mental Health remains a pressing issue in rural America, with challenges ranging from workforce shortages to stigma and affordability. Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, talks about these ongoing struggles.

“ You've got a stigma barrier, you've got a tremendous workforce barrier. And then, honestly, the health insurance component of it, the inability to pay, is a huge issue, the amount of especially when it comes to young kids in a rural farming and ranching component that are on Medicaid. And if you follow the national discussions, we are looking at $155 billion taken out of the Medicaid program over the next 10 years in rural alone. So we're kind of headed the wrong direction there.”

In addition to federal tuition payback and tuition reimbursement programs, Morgan says there are proposals currently in Congress to improve rural mental health care in rural health care clinics,

“There's currently legislation in Congress that would make sure that for in the rural health clinic model, there's more than 5000 rural health clinics. These are primary care but as part of that, a rural health clinic would include, by necessity, behavioral health issues. That's huge. That's in Congress right now. I hope we see that pass.”

Alan Morgan with the National Rural Health Association.