Web sites
The Rural Web Portal: Healthy Children and Families
(http://www.promoteprevent.org/rural)
An outcome of the National Plan for Rural Behavioral Health, this portal was developed through the collaboration of several technical assistance centers of SAMHSA/CMHS grant programs. This portal provides a new and valuable technical assistance resource to rural and frontier communities working to transform systems for children’s behavioral health in rural and frontier areas.
Frontier Mental Health Services Resource Network (http://www.wiche.edu/MentalHealth/Frontier/index.htm): The Frontier Mental Health Services Resource Network collects, analyzes, and synthesizes knowledge about the delivery of mental health services in "frontier" counties (nonmetropolitan counties with population densities of less than seven persons per square mile). It also offers technical assistance to rural agencies and advocates on mental health/substance abuse topics as they impact upon or exist within such isolated rural areas. The Network Web site features a series of “Letters to the Field” on issues including telemental health services, models for delivering services to the seriously mentally ill in frontier communities, and problems faced by mental health care consumers in frontier communities.
Rural Assistance Center
(http://www.raconline.org/about/) The Rural Assistance Center is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services information portal for those providing health and human services in rural areas. Information and resources available through this website include the following:
- Funding Tips and Information
- Information Guides, organized by topic, and including news, funding, events, research, and publications. Individual guides are available on a large number of topics, including Domestic Violence, Tribal Issues, Child Care, and Minority Health Issues.
- Reports and Publications
- Directory of Experts and Organizations
- Success Stories (Model Programs)
Rural Health Concerns/Medline Plus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ruralhealthconcerns.html)
This website provides current news and easy access to information on rural health and healthcare from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institute of Mental Health, and other sources.
Rural Information Center
(http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/). This U.S. Department of Agriculture office provides information and resources for those delivering health, mental health, social, and educational services in rural areas. The following areas of the RIC website contain resources and publications useful for grantees working in rural areas.
- Funding Resources (http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ruralres/funding.htm): Links to Federal, State, and private sources of funding for rural programs, as well as resources on grantwriting and applying for funding.
- Federal Funding Sources for Rural Areas Database (http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/funding/federalfund/ff.html): A searchable database.
- Education and Youth Resources (http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ruralres/educate.htm): Links to resources for schools and education in rural areas, including organizations and associations, planning resources, best practices, funding sources, statistics and data, and publications.
- Health Resources (http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ruralres/health.htm): Links to rural health resources, including organizations and research centers, planning resources, best practices and case studies, free/reduced cost medical programs, funding and program assistance, statistics and data, and publications.
- Publications (http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/ricpubs.htm): Publications that can be downloaded on topics including funding services and healthcare in rural areas, managed care in rural areas, rural education, rural youth employment, and understanding rural America.
Rural Mental Health Grand Rounds Web Casts (archived)
(http://www.wiche.edu/mentalhealth/Grand_Rounds/Archive.asp)
These web casts were produced by the Wisconsin Interstate Commission on Higher Education to meet a range of continuing education needs for professional and allied mental health staff currently working in rural and frontier areas. Each is approximately 90 minutes in length and includes audio presentations and PowerPoints. Topics include Building Child and Family Systems of Care in Rural Areas; The Shift to Evidence-Based Practice: What Rural Providers Need To Know; Rural Values and Culture: Implications for Mental Health Practice; Youth Violence and Prevention; and Screening for Suicide and Depression.
Rural Mental Health Symposium
(http://www.tapartnership.org/resources/RMHS.asp): This June 2005 event, sponsored by the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, focused on developing and implementing services to transform rural mental health for children, youth, and families. This website includes PowerPoint slides and hand-outs for presentations on a wide range of issues about bringing the transformation envisioned by the New Freedom Commission to rural areas.
Rural Policy Center Community Information Resources Center (http://circ.rupri.org/index.asp): CIRC makes policy-relevant information and decision support resources available to community-based decision makers throughout rural America. The CIRC website includes an archive of maps, including those of socio-economic indicators, as well as a tool allowing users to create maps of their own states and counties detailing demographic information, health indicators, healthcare and services, and other data valuable for a community assessment or to demonstrate need in grant applications.
Publications Available Online
Rural America At A Glance
(http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB4/) edited by Karen Hamrick. Economic Information Bulletin No. 4 (EIB4) 6 pp, September 2005 , 2005. A six-page brochure highlighting the most recent indicators of social and economic conditions in rural areas
Rural Culture is a Diversity Issue – Katherine Slama
(http://www.apa.org/rural/Rural_Culture_is_a_Diversity_Issue.pdf)
Toward Rural Cultural Competence – Katherine Slama. (http://www.apa.org/rural/Toward_Rural_Cultural_Competence.pdf)
These two articles by Katherline Slama discuss the cultural attitudes of rural Americans that affect the delivery of mental health services. They were originally published in the journal Minnesota Psychologist in 2004.
Rural Healthy People 2010
(http://www.srph.tamhsc.edu/centers/rhp2010/default.htm) College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, School of Rural Public Health, Southwest Rural Health Research Center, various dates.
"Healthy People 2010: A Companion Document for Rural Areas," is a project funded with support from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. The project is developing a companion to Healthy People 2010 objectives that specifically addresses rural priorities. Rural Healthy People 2010 includes literature reviews and descriptions of Models for Practice for selected objectives associated with 15 of the Healthy People 2010 focus areas identified by rural stakeholders as rural priorities. These priorities include injury and violence prevention, mental health and mental disorders, substance abuse, public health infrastructure, and education and community programs. New volumes addressing specific topics are being periodically released. They, along with supplementary materials and resources, are available through this website.
Subcommittee on Rural Issues: Background Paper (http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/papers/Rural.pdf). Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004. This background paper for the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health reviews the epidemiology on mental health issues in rural areas as well as the challenges of providing care for people with mental health illnesses in these areas. Three such challenges are outlined and explored: accessibility, availability, and acceptability.
Telemental Health: Delivery Models and Performance Measurement (http://www.wiche.edu/MentalHealth/northland/index.asp) by Walter LeMendola, Dennis Mohatt, and Chuck McGee. Boulder, CO: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2002. A report on telemental service delivery models based on a review of the literature, a key-informant survey of participants in a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for the Advancement of Telemedicine conference, and telephone surveys of persons in telemental health who did not attend this conference. The analysis sought to identify and understand the various models for service delivery via telemental health technologies, as well as methods currently being used to evaluate the performance of these systems.
