Mental health and substance abuse services among rural minorities.
This paper provides a brief overview of current conditions and prospects for increased access to mental health and substance abuse services among rural minorities. First, it addresses challenges in ensuring rural minorities access to needed services. Second, it considers steps to increase rural minority participation in the mental health and substance abuse workforce. The dual emphasis is on (1) reaching now the isolated, rural, and frontier minority populations in need of these services and (2) building a rural health workforce that is reflective of rural minority cultures and offers continually higher quality and sustainable services to rural and minority populations.
School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, Bryan, TX 77802, USA. gamm@srph.tamu.edu
Larry D
LD
Gamm
D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008913:Minority Groups; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000208:ethnology; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000458:organization & administration; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States