Mental Health

The Challenge

Rural communities face some of the highest suicide rates in the country, as well as limited mental health services. Rural areas need access to care to reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms or other mental health concerns.

Our Approach

• Telemedicine allows rural school districts with counseling vacancies to refer students for mental health evaluations, interventions, and treatment planning with a child and adolescent psychiatrist. Virtual visits bring a psychiatrist to a patient immediately and help tailor a child's treatment to the resources available in their region.
• Community-based participatory research gathers medical providers, nurses, other medical staff, patients and their family members to help create screening and intervention tools for patients with acute stress and post-traumatic stress disorders. 
• Next Generation 911 helps shorten the time between an accident and treatment by equipping EMS units with advanced technologies that transmit information ahead of time so that practitioners can begin planning and preparation before the patient arrives, saving time and lives.
• The Well Being Index helps researchers identify gaps in treatment resources necessary in rural areas, such as hospitals and clinics, and establishes a population base for preventative programming and planning treatment services that can be delivered through telemedicine. 
• Family therapy services offered through the Family Therapy Clinic in the College of 
  Human Sciences.