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Convo: Isolation, Stigma, and Loneliness -- Mental Health in Rural America

Lisa Curtain, Ph.D.

Does the country life appeal to you? You’re not alone.

Except that you might quickly become so. 

As it turns out, the advantages rural living offers can’t escape the costs, namely the risk of untreated mental illness brought on by the effects of isolation and loneliness.

On this episode of Convo, Dr. Lisa Curtin, psychology professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina and editorial board member of the Journal of Rural Mental Health, discusses mental health problems and treatment in rural communities. and how being an outsider to the country life can be damaging to both everyday people and the psychologists who want to help them.

She also explains how stigma against mental healthcare in rural areas comes about and how  psychologists and therapists can work with rural communities to help fix the problem.

"A common model is to integrate treatment into existing agencies,"Curtin says. "For example, offering behavioral health services at primary care physicians' offices, in schools, or in churches."
 
"A common model is to integrate treatment into existing agencies,"Curtin says. "For example, offering behavioral health services at primary care physicians' offices, in schools, or in churches."  

Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 

https://www.crisistextline.org/

Suicide & Cricis Center of North Texas 24/7 Crisis Line (214) 828-1000 or (800) 273-8255 

https://www.sccenter.org/

For a full list of mental health and suicide prevention services in Texas, click here.

Scott Morgan has been an award-winning journalist since 2001. His work has appeared in several newspapers and magazines as well as online. He has also been an editor, freelancer, speaker, writing teacher, author, and podcaster.