Final Report Of The Ad Hoc Rural Mental Health Provider Work Group

Featuring contributions from practitioners, researchers, and academics, this volume synthesizes and analyzes current trends in rural social work practice and considers the most effective ways to serve rural communities. Contributors consider the history and development of rural social work from its beginnings to the present day, addressing the value of the Internet and other new information technologies in helping clients. They also examine the effects of nonprofit organizations and welfare reform on poor rural areas. Coverage of specific client populations and fields of practice includes services for rural mental healthcare; the chronically mentally ill; healthcare for minorities; and the challenges faced by the elderly in rural areas. The contributors also consider issues affecting gays and lesbians living in rural communities and the role of religiosity and social support in the well-being of HIV/AIDS clients. The book concludes with a consideration of the unique issues associated with educating social workers for rural practice.

Mental Health Informatics offers a comprehensive examination of contemporary issues in mental health that focuses on the innovative use of computers and other information technology in support of patient care, education, services delivery, and research in the field of mental health services. This text deals with resources, devices, and formalized methods for optimizing the storage, retrieval, and management of information for problem solving and decision-making in mental health. Mental health informatics is an interdisciplinary field based upon computer and information sciences, the cognitive and decision sciences, public health and mental health (including epidemiology), and telecommunications. Researchers in informatics have discovered new methods and techniques to enhance health and mental health care, scientific and applied research, and education through information technology. The fourteen chapters are divided into four main parts, including: 1) an introduction to informatics, public health, and mental health; 2) an overview of the ethical, legal, services delivery, and organizational issues in data/records standards and technology adoption; 3) discusses research in today's online environment, addressing issues including research competencies, standards for literature reviews, constructing search strategies, and synthesizing findings; and 4) provides a discussion of the globalization of information and future issues in policy and practice in mental health informatics.

Rural Women's Health encompasses the breadth and depth of the unique physical and psychological needs facing rural women throughout the United States and Canada, and identifies positive interventions and outcomes. Raymond T. Coward, founding editor of The Journal of Rural Health, along with five leading practitioners and researchers with contributions from over 25 educators, authors, program leaders, and researchers representing the multidisciplinary spectrum of rural health professionals, present the most comprehensive coverage on rural women's health that exists today. Key issues covered include: Socio-cultural stressors Policy changes Barriers to accessing mental health treatment Obesity and risk factors Behavioral risk factors Chronic diseases Exercise, nutrition, and health promotion programs Education and telehealth This is a valuable resource for mental health service providers, gerontologists, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and primary care physicians.

Covers: the emergence of managed behavioral health care; assess. of outcomes and assess. of performance; key factors in managed care, including risk adjust., workforce competencies, and rural serv.; population-based analyses for populations who are seriously mentally ill and severely emotionally disturbed and for costs incurred through Medicare, Medicaid, and private sector insur. plans. National stat. on mental health org's., mental health serv. in jails, the role of neighborhood factors in relation to prevalence of depressive disorders and the dist. of mental health providers, and the character. of the current mental health work force.