Division 31 has a new Section–Rural Health. My early time with the Division 31 Board of Directors correlated with my own personal thoughts about how I could better connect my personal values with my professional values. I grew up on a farm in Northeast Missouri. We raised cattle, hogs, corn, soybeans, and wheat. My dad worked alongside his father and siblings while modeling for myself, brother, and cousins a good work ethic and value of family relationships. Farming is a lot of hard work but is very fulfilling to have tangible evidence of your work the moment you complete a task. You can look back at a tilled field or watch livestock grow each day and know that your efforts directly influenced that outcome. Similarly, our local farming community models hard work and has always supported close ties with the land and one another, often helping each other out, particularly in times of need. My family received this community support just a few years ago when my aunt died unexpectedly in the midst of harvest season. As my uncle was in the midst of processing the sudden death of his wife and planning a funeral, the community supported him by showing up with their own harvesting equipment to bring in all of my uncle’s crop in just a few days, allowing my uncle and cousins the time and space to grieve.
When news of tragedy or struggle spread in a rural or frontier community, people come to help. But what happens when that struggle is kept quiet? An individual suffers alone. As psychologists, we are well aware of the ongoing battle against mental health stigma. Rural communities appear to experience mental health stigma to a greater degree. The lack of access to care only perpetuates the problem in our communities leading to staggering data on rural mental illness, addiction, and suicide. Telehealth can greatly improve access, but lack of broadband internet in rural areas remains an obstacle to care.
Psychologists serving rural communities can also feel isolated at times, as one may be the only mental health professional, let alone psychologist, in a locality trying to bring a much-needed service to a community they love. My hope is that our SPTAs are providing a local home for psychologists to connect with each other regarding rural health needs and advocating at their state, provincial, or territorial level to improve rural mental health care. Now, Division 31 can serve as another source of community, advocacy, and resource across geographic boundaries to build a community of psychologists interested in rural health.
This growing Section within Division 31 will also serve as a resource to others. Psychologists familiar with rural communities can educate colleagues on the unique culture associated with living outside an urban area and advocate for issues that matter to rural health professionals and the populations they serve. APA has already made inroads with groups such as Farm Aid, and this new Section hopes to grow that outreach to more rural focused groups.
The 2023 Practice Leadership Conference was a wonderful opportunity to spread the word on this new Section and acknowledge the role each SPTA has with rural communities. I hope we can build on that message to strengthen our Division, our SPTAs, and the communities we serve.
To join the Rural Health Section, contact our Section Chair Emily Shelby-Nelson, PsyD.