Mental Health Services Under Strain in Rural America

Maria Vega, a member of Montana’s Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, was jailed in 2015 after a suicide attempt. She is now part of a group of tribal members, academics, and policy experts proposing alternatives to the tribal policy of treating suicide as a crime. Photo by Sara Reardon / Kaiser Health News

The gap between suicide rates in rural and urban areas has grown, in part due to limited access to mental health services and privacy concerns in rural settings. Read more in my article in the American Journal of Nursing.

Author: Jennifer Huber

As a Ph.D. physicist and research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, I gained extensive experience in medical imaging and technical writing. Now, I am a full-time freelance science writer, editor and science-writing instructor. I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area most of my life and I frequently enjoy the eclectic cultural, culinary and outdoor activities available in the area.