Rural Behavioral Health- Telehealth Challenges and Opportunities

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based on material published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and is available as an open-access article. This In Brief looks at common acceptability, availability, and accessibility barriers to mental and substance use disorder (behavioral health) treatment and services in rural communities and presents ways telehealth can help surmount some of these barriers. Challenges to implementing effective telehealth services in sparsely populated areas are also discussed. This information is designed to be useful to behavioral health practitioners and many other professionals such as attorneys, behavioral health training program faculty, clergy, pharmacists, and primary care practitioners who are concerned with behavioral health in their communities. These professionals may be local centers of influence to whom others turn for behavioral health information and help This course on telehealth challenges for rural communities is designed for clinical social workers, psychologists, professional counselors, nurses, and substance abuse counselors who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their expertise with telehealth challenges for rural communities. The course material includes a literature review of interventions. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading peer reviewed research-based articles for continuing education is that they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: SAMHSA Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding telehealth challenges for rural communities. Specifically, a professional will: Recognize acceptability barriers to telehealth and strategies for addressing acceptability barriers to telehealth. Identify accessibility barriers to telehealth and strategies for addressing accessibility barriers to telehealth. Describe challenges associated with implementing telehealth services. Citation: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2016). Rural Behavioral Health: Telehealth Challenges and Opportunities. Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://store.samhsa.gov.