Providing care for children with mental issues in rural communities can be challenging. A recent CDC www.cdc.gov study found that children in rural areas with Mental, Behavioral, and Developmental Disorders (MBDD) face more community and family challenges than children in urban areas with the same disorders.
The CDC March 2017 study on rural health appearing in the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is titled “Differences in Health Care, Family and Community Factors Associated with MBDD among Children Aged 2-8 years in Rural and Urban Areas-U.S 2011.2012.” The study points out that for children living in rural areas, about one in six young children had a parent-reported MBDD diagnosis.
One problem is that the parents of children with MBDD in rural areas often have trouble getting by on their family’s income than parents of children with these disorders in urban areas.
Living in poverty can affect the brain both biologically and socially, parental alcohol and drug use may be a problem, fewer specialists are available in rural areas that are trained to handle mental issues, and if there is a problem, it is harder physically for rural children and parents to visit mental health specialists outside of the community.
In addition, the majority of rural children with an MBDD more often lack a medical home, very often have a parent with poor mental health, and live in a neighborhood lacking physical and social resources than children without an MBDD.
There are additional issues that make it difficult to deliver mental health services to children in rural areas. For example, communities may not have the funds to address mental issues, restrictive licensing practices in rural areas can be a problem in getting specialists to help in rural communities, plus the fragmentation of services in communities can be a major factor in not adequately providing both mental and behavioral care
However, less severe mental issues can often be taken care of by a pediatrician, visiting FQHCs can offer specialized services, and rural children can have health needs addressed by increasing school-based services. In addition, it has been found that often mental health issues in rural areas can successfully use telehealth services to help the children and their families.
Go to https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/rural_health_series.html to view the study on children’s mental and behavioral health in rural communities.