Mental Health care is need in cities and rural areas alike

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In this JAMA article, you'll learn about:

• What is the current techno-demographic make up of rural America

"...well established that rural communities lack consistent internet and/or cellular coverage.2,5 Because many DMHIs rely on connectivity for the patient’s phone or device, rural individuals may be disadvantaged to use DMHIs in the moments when needed most."

• What are the barriers to accessing digital mental health interventions (DHMI)

"...equity in mental health service delivery could be bolstered by reimbursement policies for DMHIs that offer higher incentives to underserved areas to support the expense of integrating DMHI data into the EHR."

"However, to fully realize the benefit of this affordance of DMHIs for rural areas, policy efforts should ensure that billing codes are not limited to only mental health specialists, and that such codes allow non–mental health personnel to deliver DMHIs.

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Such restrictions are problematic for rural areas that do not have enough clinicians to deliver services or for organizations that serve people across state lines."

• How can we think about building for better adoption