Rural Health
News by Topic: Behavioral health
Nov 20, 2025 - Discusses health disparities among rural healthcare provider shortages nationally and in Montana. Highlights 2 residency programs in Billings, Montana aiming to address the shortages of internal medicine and psychiatry providers. Describes how rural practice is integrated into the residencies as well as the benefits for both physician residents and rural communities.
Source: The Daily Yonder
SAMHSA: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request
Federal Register
Nov 20, 2025 - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is seeking comments on a proposed new project called SAMHSA Unified Performance Reporting Tool (SUPRT)—Project (P). This tool will replace the Center for Mental Health Services' (CMHS) Infrastructure Development, Prevention, and Mental Health Promotion (IPP) Indicators and will serve as a single tool to collect grant-level aggregate data on target goals, actual performance, and client demographic characteristics from CMHS, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), and Behavioral Health Coordinating Office (988) grantees. Comments are due by January 20, 2026.
Source: Federal Register
Nov 19, 2025 - Describes a program embedding social workers in a rural North Carolina police department to address the increase in non-crime related calls to the police. Notes that similar programs have operated in urban areas. Discusses how successes have led to expanding the program, connecting people to services in under-resourced areas, and other alternative responder programs in the state.
Source: North Carolina Health News
Nov 18, 2025 - A rural Vermont mental health urgent care facility has expanded services to offer overnight beds. It is the first 24/7 walk-in mental health urgent care facility in the state and is intended to relieve area emergency rooms as well as offer care close to home. Describes the facility's place in the mental healthcare intervention space, how the program has been funded, outcomes for prior patients, services offered, and sustainability.
Source: VT Digger
Nov 11, 2025 - Describes a new mental health treatment offered for free to veterans and other first responders in Ohio. Highlights one veteran's work to increase access to the treatment in rural areas using mobile units.
Source: The Ohio Newsroom
Nov 10, 2025 - Discusses the high suicide rates for older adult men in the mountain west. Notes that terminal illness, finances, and access to firearms combined with stigma related to mental health are factors in the high rates. Describes Donna's Law as a policy measure to reduce rates of suicide with a firearm.
Source: KUNC
Nov 5, 2025 - Offers data showing rural and urban differences in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) incidence and factors contributing to those higher rates. Discusses smoking, occupational hazards, access to healthcare, and social determinants of health. Notes effective approaches for overcoming these contributors to COPD.
Source: Loma Linda University Health News
Oct 31, 2025 - The Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) is opening a new office in rural North Carolina. Services offered include primary care, women's services, and behavioral health. Discusses disparities in care between rural and urban communities in the area, in part due to workforce shortages, and the mission of MAHEC to train and retain healthcare professionals.
Source: WLOS
Oct 30, 2025 - Describes community-wide efforts to combat an increase in suicides in rural Colorado. Highlights a mental health response team comprised of police and a mental health professional. Discusses rural specific drivers of suicide rates.
Source: The Colorado Sun
Oct 17, 2025 - Discusses higher suicide rates for rural residents compared to urban residents and a Louisiana university's online therapy program to address those higher rates. Discusses the program's shift to focus on engaging communities, successes after year 1, and work to address broadband challenges.
Source: WAFB