Rural Communities and Technology
Highlighted Resources
Mental Health System Development in Rural and Remote Areas During COVID-19 (2021)
Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: This resource summarizes a body of work that examines problems and solutions faced in the delivery of mental health services in rural, remote, and tribal areas and explores the context of COVID-19 and includes data from a national survey and interviews with experts.
Keywords: rural communities; tribal communities; COVID-19; crisis continuum; telehealth
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Using Technology to Improve the Delivery of Behavioral Health Crisis Services in the U.S. (2020)
Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: This resource reviews literature to understand the opportunities and challenges of technology in the delivery of behavioral health crisis services and discusses how states are using technology.
Keywords: technology; mobile crisis teams; crisis call centers; crisis stabilization units; funding
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Other Resources
Directory
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I. Rural Communities
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Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: This resource discusses the challenges associated with the delivery of comprehensive behavioral health crisis services in rural areas and the strategies and opportunities used by state authorities and local providers to increase access and availability of these services in rural and frontier communities in the U.S. It also discusses challenges related to COVID-19.
Keywords: rural communities; crisis continuum; COVID-19
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Tailoring Crisis Response and Pre-Arrest Diversion Models for Rural Communities (2019)
Produced By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: This action brief provides rural communities recommended strategies for adapting promising or proven interventions to better support crisis response and pre-arrest diversion in their communities. It is the first of three briefs developed from the SAMHSA Pre-Arrest Diversion Expert Panel.
Keywords: crisis response; diversion; rural communities; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM)
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Reducing Mental Illness in Rural Jails
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: The goal of this publication is to provide rural county leaders with ideas and strategies for addressing challenges faced by rural counties in reducing mental illness in jails by providing examples of counties that have successfully done so or are making progress. It also discusses the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) as a tool to identify potential changes.
Keywords: rural communities; sequential intercept model
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How Montana Is Redesigning Crisis Services in a Rural Landscape (2021)
Produced By: Crisis Talk
Description: Over the past few years, there’s been a shift in Montana to increase crisis services, including mobile crisis providers and crisis stabilization centers. Simultaneously, co-responder teams are also on the rise. This resource discusses the work in Montana to integrate their crisis response systems, including discussions on 911 and 988.
Keywords: 911; 988; co-responder; mobile crisis services; crisis continuum
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II. Technology
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Technology's Acceleration in Behavioral Health: COVID, 988, Social Media, Treatment and More (2021)
Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: This resource discusses technology related to behavioral health, including telehealth, artificial intelligence (AI) in social media, 988, apps, software, and other forms of technology.
Keywords: technology; 988; telehealth
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Telehealth for the Treatment of Serious Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders (2021)
Produced By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: This guide discusses how telehealth can be used to provide treatment for adults living with serious mental illness and substance use disorders, distills the research into recommendations for practice, and provides examples of how these recommendations can be implemented. It discusses how telehealth can be used in crisis services.
Keywords: telehealth; technology; crisis services
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Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: This resource highlights programs at the state and county level that are successfully leveraging the use of technology to expand service and program capabilities. These programs are using technology to maximize communicating and data-sharing among stakeholders at various points in the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM).
Keywords: sequential intercept model (SIM); technology; justice system; data
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Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: Many states are using a psychiatric bed registry that tracks all available crisis and inpatient psychiatric beds to help ensure there is no delay for individuals experiencing a crisis to receive appropriate care without delay. This resource discusses common concepts related to psychiatric bed registries, provides information on the history of boarding and on-line registries, developing registries, and barriers to successful implementation. It also details states' experiences with bed registries.
Keywords: bed registries; inpatient hospitalization
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In Oklahoma, People in Need and First Responders Get iPads for Rapid Face-to-Face Mental Health Response (2021)
Produced By: Crisis Talk
Description: This article discusses how first responders, people in crisis, and hospitals can connect to a mental health professional at the Grand Lake Mental Health Center crisis line using iPads. It describes the program and its benefits.
Keywords: telehealth; technology; crisis services