Psychiatric Times September 24, 2024
Rural areas suffer from a severe shortage of mental health professionals. How can nurse practitioners help?
In the United States, disparities in mental health care access persist, particularly in underserved areas such as rural communities and low-income urban populations. These disparities are not just a matter of inconvenience—they represent a growing crisis that leaves millions of individuals without the mental health services they critically need.1
Rural areas, in particular, suffer from a severe shortage of mental health professionals. This shortage creates substantial barriers to accessing care, leading to long wait times and forcing patients to travel extensive distances to receive mental health treatment.
In this context, nurse practitioners (NPs), particularly those specialized in psychiatric mental health nursing, play a critical...
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