WWAMI Rural Health Research Center

📢 New journal article!

Our latest study in The Journal of Rural Health examines how recent Medicare policy changes that allow marriage & family therapists (MFTs) and mental health counselors (MHCs) to bill independently may impact access to mental health care in rural communities.

In this quantitative analysis, we explored the perspectives of leaders from rural health systems and mental health organizations about how this policy may impact the accessibility of mental health services for rural Medicare beneficiaries and their communities, and identify facilitators and barriers to utilizing MFTs and MHCs in the rural behavioral health workforce.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.70162

🚨New Policy Brief: Rural–Urban Youth Mental Health Workforce 🚨
Children and adolescents in rural areas face significant barriers to mental health care, driven by persistent shortages of child and youth behavioral health clinicians and uneven access to telehealth. Our latest policy brief examines how the youth behavioral health workforce is distributed across rural and urban communities in the U.S.

🔍 Key findings include:
• Rural counties have about half the per capita supply of youth behavioral health clinicians compared to urban counties.
• Nearly two-thirds of rural counties (65.1%), lacked any youth behavioral health clinician, with this proportion increasing to 87.2% in the most remote counties.
• Youth/family/school psychologists were the most prevalent youth behavioral health clinicians in rural areas (19.2 per 100,000).

📄 Read the full policy brief: https://bit.ly/4tMJqVS

Two New Policy Briefs: Access to Opioid Use Disorder Care for Children and Adolescents with Commercial Insurance and Medicaid

Access to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment remains challenging for children and adolescents. Our 2 new policy briefs examine health care use among commercially- & Medicaid-insured rural and urban children and adolescents (ages 0–17) with OUD, focusing on visit frequency and travel distance for care.

Key findings include:

🔹Nearly 10% of children and adolescents with an OUD diagnosis who were commercially-insured lived in rural counties, and about 20% of Medicaid-insured children and adolescents with an OUD diagnosis lived in a rural county.
🔹 Urban children and adolescents who were either commercially- or Medicaid-insured had slightly more health care visits on average than their rural peers.
🔹 Nurse practitioners and physician assistants played a larger role in care delivery for rural children and adolescents with commercial insurance, while urban children and adolescents with commercial insurance more often received care from specialists or behavioral health providers.
🔹 Rural children and adolescents with Medicaid insurance traveled twice as far on average to access care than their urban peers (100.7 vs. 55.5 minutes).

Read more here:
🔗Medicaid: https://bit.ly/4vxYY16
🔗Commercial: https://bit.ly/4821Qt7

familymedicine.uw.edu

New Publications from the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
Our team has released three new data briefs examining alcohol use disorder (AUD), ma*****na use disorder (MUD), depression and suicidal thoughts/behaviors, and mental health service use among adolescents and young adults (ages 12–24) across rural and urban U.S. counties.

Key findings include:
🔹 Alcohol & Ma*****na Use Disorders
• Past-year alcohol use disorder was similar in urban (9.2%) and rural (8.5%) counties.
• Ma*****na use disorder (MUD) prevalence was 10% in both rural and urban areas—
but it varied widely by region.
🔗Full brief here: https://bit.ly/4vhMnPo

🔹 Depression & Suicidal Thoughts/Behaviors
• Rates of major depressive episodes did not differ between rural and urban adolescents (12–17). However, serious suicidal ideation and planning were significantly higher in rural counties (18.2% vs. 14.8% with serious thoughts; 8.4% vs. 6.3% with plans).
• Nationally, the highest rates of suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts were among adolescents living in larger rural counties.
🔗Full brief here: https://bit.ly/4vhMnPo

🔹 Mental Health Service Use
• Receipt of specialty mental health care among adolescents was similar in rural and urban counties (18.0% vs. 18.4%).
• Yet virtual mental health service use was lower in rural areas (8.5% vs. 11.0%).
🔗Full brief here: https://bit.ly/4vhMnPo