Mentor: Xiuwu Liu, Ph.D.

Rural communities face significant disparities in mental healthcare access compared to urban populations. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, “nearly 70% of adolescents seeking mental health or substance use disorder care did not receive any care on at least 1 occasion (NAMI, 2023)”. There is a clear need for effective interventions in rural communities that increase access to care.

What we know:

Rural areas have fewer mental health providers

Geographic isolation creates accessibility barriers.

Stigma reduces care-seeking behavior

Gaps in research:

Most studies focus on patient outcomes, not provider experiences.

Barriers are studied individually, not as interacting systems.

There is limited research on provider adaptations to these constraints in practice.

Thus, the purpose of this project is to:

1. Identify barriers that impact rural communities from the providers perspectives.
2. Highlight interventions to improve care accessibility

Explore the Project