Who will step up to meet the challenge of the next rural crisis?
Rural practice presents important yet challenging issues for psychology, especially given
uneven population distribution, high levels of need, limited availability of rural services,
and ongoing migration to urban centers. It is critical that mental health professionals and
first responders in rural areas become aware of recent research, training and approaches
to crisis intervention, traumatology, compassion fatigue, disaster mental health, critical incident
stress management, post-traumatic stress and related areas in rural environments.
Critical issues facing rural areas include:
Physical issues such as land, air, and water resources, cheap food policy, chemicals
and pesticides, animal rights, corruption in food marketing and distribution, and land
appropriation for energy development.
Quality of life issues such as rural America's declining share of national wealth, problems of
hunger, education, and rural poverty among rural populations of farmers and ranchers.
Direct service issues include the need to accommodate a wide variety of mental health
difficulties, client privacy and boundaries, and practical challenges.
Indirect service issues include the greater need for diverse professional activities, collaborative
work with professionals having different orientations and beliefs, program development
and evaluation, and conducting research with few mentors or peer collaborators.
Professional training and development issues include lack of specialized relevant
courses and placements.
Personal issues include limited opportunities for recreation, culture, and lack of privacy.
Doherty's first volume in this new series Crisis in the American Heartland explores these
and many other issues.
Social Science: Disasters & Disaster Relief
For more information please visit www.RMRInstitute.org
