Rural Project Examples Addressing Mental health conditions

Updated/reviewed April 2026

Need: To increase medical management knowledge for New Mexico primary care providers in order to provide care for the thousands of rural patients with hepatitis C, a chronic, complex condition that has high personal and public health costs when left untreated.
Intervention: Project leveraging an audiovisual platform to accomplish "moving knowledge, not patients" that used a "knowledge network learning loop" of disease-specific consultants and rural healthcare teams learning from one another and learning by providing direct patient care.
Results: In 18 months, the urban specialist appointment wait list decreased from 8 months to 2 weeks due to hepatitis C patients receiving care from the project's participating primary care providers. Improved disease outcomes were demonstrated along with cost savings, including those associated with travel. The project model, now known as Project ECHO® – Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes — has evolved into a telementoring model used world-wide.

Updated/reviewed November 2025

Need: To help people with chronic conditions learn how to manage their health.
Intervention: A small-group 6-week workshop for individuals with chronic conditions to learn skills and strategies to manage their health.
Results: Participants have better health and quality of life, including reduction in pain, fatigue, and depression.

Updated/reviewed August 2025

Need: Rural areas face challenges in access to mental health services, including shortages of mental health providers.
Intervention: This 8-hour course trains rural community members to recognize mental health and substance use issues and learn how to help someone who is developing a mental health concern or experiencing a mental health crisis.
Results: Numerous studies of this method have found that course participants are better able and more likely to help others regarding mental health issues.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: To provide evidence-based psychotherapy for depression in elderly veterans who are unable to seek mental health treatment due to distance or stigma.
Intervention: Telepsychology-Service Delivery for Depressed Elderly Veterans compared providing behavioral activation therapy via home-based telehealth and the same treatment delivered in a traditional office-based format.
Results: A 2015 study and two 2016 studies show that providing treatment via home-based telehealth to elderly veterans in South Carolina resulted in the same improved health outcomes, quality of life, satisfaction with care, and cost of healthcare compared to those receiving face-to-face treatment.

Updated/reviewed April 2026

Need: To provide psychotherapy to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Intervention: University of Wyoming psychology doctoral students provide psychotherapy via videoconferencing to crisis center clients in two rural locations.
Results: Clients, student therapists, and crisis center staff were satisfied with the quality of services, and clients reported reduced symptoms of depression and PTSD.

Updated/reviewed January 2025

Need: To improve the health of communities in the south central region of New Mexico.
Intervention: A program was developed to address diabetes prevention and control, behavioral healthcare, and immunization in Luna County.
Results: During the program, 1,500 immunizations were distributed, baseline measurements of participants improved, and 935 new patients were seen for behavioral health issues.

Updated/reviewed May 2024

Need: To address and treat substance use disorder (SUD) and depression in the Upper Great Lakes region.
Intervention: Cross-Walk, a program that integrates behavioral healthcare into primary care services, was developed in Michigan's Marquette County.
Results: The collaborative efforts strengthened care management services in local healthcare facilities as primary care patients were referred to a behavioral health specialist.

Added May 2026

Need: To make sure patients with chronic conditions are educated about, and able to manage, their medical prescriptions and care.
Intervention: A rural primary care-based program that uses a multidimensional team approach to connect rural patients with clinical pharmacists via telehealth.
Results: More than 250 patients have participated in the program.

Updated/reviewed May 2026

Need: Out of 79 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) surveyed in Minnesota in 2015, behavioral health was the most frequently cited service requested.
Intervention: In response, Rural Health Innovations launched the Minnesota Integrative Behavioral Health Program. This initiative engaged representatives across all sectors in health integration between hospital, primary care, and community services.
Results: Strategy sessions resulted in the creation of resource directories to improve care coordination, evaluation measurements to document results, and an overall better understanding of integrative care challenges.

Updated/reviewed March 2026

Need: Increase behavioral health access after a rural community suicide loss of 5 older men occurring in a 24-month interval.
Intervention: A Critical Access Hospital in Yoakum, Texas, created an inpatient and outpatient community-based behavioral health care model for area residents in need.
Results: Based on the original model's financially sustainable outcomes creating both inpatient/outpatient access, the model has matured with outpatient access now offering comprehensive Licensed Clinical Social Worker counseling services for age groups starting with teens and ranging to older adults.

Rural Project Examples: Mental health conditions