A Rural Health Initiative Pilot: Using A Clinical Rehabilitation Telemental-health Counseling Program for Rural Children

Children in rural counties of the United States often have little to no access to behavioral, rehabilitation, and clinical mental health counseling services. The Counseling Department within Mercer University is currently working with the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center to utilize telemental health technology as a way to provide behavioral health services to children in a Georgia rural county school system using counselors-in-training. In this presentation, we will identify the consequences of limited access to mental health services in rural areas, particularly for children. We also will summarize clinical counseling literature related to providing counseling through telehealth and consider the challenges inherent in developing services in rural areas. Finally, we will discuss the steps necessary to build a telemental health counseling program that utilizes graduate-level students to address children’s mental rehabilitation needs.