ABC News (5/18, Livingston, Green) reported, “May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and two years into a global pandemic that has highlighted the need for increased access to mental health care, 570 counties across the United States” are mental healthcare deserts that “have no psychologists, psychiatrists or counselors.” Saul Levin, MD, MPA, FRCP-E, FRC, “chief executive officer and medical director for the American Psychiatric Association,” stated, “While this country has given resources for healthcare over the decades, it has never been enough.” Dr. Levin added that “rural areas, in particular…’have not gotten the resources to keep up.’” In fact, 75% “of rural counties across the country have no mental health” clinicians “or fewer than 50 per 100,000 people, according to an ABC News analysis of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data.”
Related Links:
— “America’s mental health care deserts: Where is it hard to access care? “Kelly Livingston and Maggie Green, ABC News, May 18, 2022