Advantages and Disadvantages in the Management of Mental Illnesses in Rural Areas

Abstract

Inhabitants of rural areas live under specific conditions that make them more vulnerable to adverse economic, social, and natural situations. Besides this, the gaps in health care and particularly in mental health management are bigger than the ones existing in urban areas. However, even though studies have mostly focused on the limitations of mental health management in rural areas, few of them have addressed its strengths and advantages. These advantages include more and better paid jobs than in big cities, a less competitive environment, and a set of interesting and challenging mental health characteristics for the mental health professional who may dispose of various social, community, and religious sources.

On the other hand, the main disadvantages of managing mental problems in rural areas include stigma, isolation, limited resources for interventions, and limited opportunities for training and communication with other colleagues. Also, mental health professionals are unevenly distributed within urban and rural areas because trained psychiatrists work either in the main cities or their nearest suburbs. Solutions proposed to solve these problems include training for rural service, telemedicine, dissemination of evidence-based treatments to rural clinics, and integration with the local ethnomedical system.