Health Affairs October 7, 2021
Access to mental health care has long been difficult for most Americans, and things have only gotten worse during the pandemic. Barriers to care exist everywhere and are more troublesome in rural areas where there are few mental health specialists, and, not surprisingly, treatment rates are much lower. For example, one study found that rural patients receive 73 percent fewer specialty mental health visits than urban patients.
Many hoped that telehealth could help minimize the disparity in mental health treatment between urban and rural Americans. Since rural residents lack in-person care in their local community, they might use telehealth at higher rates than urban residents, thereby reducing the gap in the total amount of care (in-person and telehealth) received. Due...
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