Posts by Lynda Waddington

In northern Minnesota, a small group of local behavioral health specialists have created a post-doctorate program that is not only establishing a pipeline of providers to rural communities; it is enhancing the way existing agencies and providers interact for the betterment of an entire region.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — An audible and collective groan of disbelief and frustration emanated from rural behavioral health professionals gathered here earlier this week for a regional conference, when they learned that both houses of Congress passed agriculture appropriations bills that did not include funding for a stress assistance network geared toward farm and ranch families.

Although only about four million of the estimated 44.3 million people of Latino descent in America live in Midwestern states, cultural differences and economic realities associated with those populations have created additional challenges for rural health care delivery systems that are already stretched thin.

Because mental health care is hard to access in rural parts of the country, the few behavioral health professionals serving rural populations are testing and utilizing more technological tools for outreach.

After the 1980s farm crisis, states like Iowa and Nebraska developed crisis hotlines designed specifically to serve the needs of agricultural workers. Today, in the wake of natural disasters and amid heightened economic uncertainty for farmers, the hotlines are seeing a spike in activity, likely helping prevent more tragedies.

As midwestern dairy farmers struggle to survive as they face plummeting milk prices, help may come from a recently introduced bill, the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009. But Iowa’s Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley aren’t optimistic the measure will garner floor time for a debate. Even if it does, “it’s not going to be enough to make up the cost difference that farmers are now experiencing,” said Grassley.