Rural mental health needs and the role of the telemental health supervision

The COVID epidemic has increased attention to rural mental health needs, in part because rural communities have seen high rates of self-destructive behavior in the

form of substance abuse in addition to higher levels of anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems. In rural communities, parents may be facing their own

increased stress while trying to respond to the greater mental health needs of their children. Furthermore, they may see few local resources prepared to address their

own and their children’s challenges. I have already posted about the increased need for rural mental health services.

In a recent article in the Journal of Rural Mental Health, Bender & Werries (2022) note that the virus has adversely impacted functioning in physical, emotional,

economic, and mental health domains in rural communities. There is also a desperate need for more clinicians in rural settings. They propose that improved online

supervision can enable more experienced clinicians to supervise the work of those clinicians who are working with rural populations, often using telemental health. This

highlights the importance of using online mechanisms both for delivering mental health services and for training and supervising new clinicians.