Rural mental health: Part 2 - improving rural mental health services

In the first module, Rural mental health: Part 1 – understanding rural mental health, we looked at definitions of rurality, current research, and factors affecting the epidemiology of rural mental health.

Providing mental health services to remote and rural locations can be challenging. Issues such as social visibility, stigmatisation and attitudes towards help-seeking within rural communities may affect the recognition and treatment of mental health problems.

Factors such as staffing, transport and cost can also significantly affect the quality of service provision. In addition, there may be specific professional issues that arise for psychiatrists working in rural areas.

This module uses a series of interactive exercises and case scenarios to illustrate the challenges of providing rural mental health services, while pointing towards some solutions. Many of the lessons that are learnt can be directly extended to clinical practice in both rural and urban areas.