Mental Health Outcomes and Access to Care Among Rural Older Adults

There is a large body of research on the health of rural older adults, including extensive work from our Rural Health Research Center. This work shows that rural older adults have poorer health outcomes than urban older adults (including higher rates of disability, functional limitations, and chronic conditions) and that they have distinctive barriers to accessing care. Mental health issues are widespread and costly and rural residents have barriers to accessing timely mental health care. However, less is known about the mental health of older adults in rural communities. While there has been research on cognitive functioning in rural older adults, there is a notable research gap in understanding rates of common mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. Further, there is limited research exploring the use of and access to mental health care among rural older adults. This information is critical to informing state and federal policy and resource distribution to prevent, diagnosis, and manage mental health conditions among older adults in rural areas.

This project seeks to identify: 1) rates of depression, anxiety, and other common mental health conditions among rural older adults, including differences in rates of mental health conditions by age, 2) use of and access to mental health care among rural older adults, including outpatient, inpatient, and pharmaceutical interventions, and 3) promising models to reduce barriers to mental health care among rural older adults.