A recently introduced bill would help boost mental health services in rural areas. The Farm Bureau-backed Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act of 2020 (S. 3917) would direct the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Health Liaison to award grants for home-based telemental health care demonstrations.
The bill would authorize up to $10 million of funds currently available to the HHS secretary for each of fiscal years 2020 to 2024. It is designed to increase mental health services in rural medically underserved populations and for individuals in farming, fishing and forestry occupations.
“The COVID-19 pandemic, challenging weather, trade disputes, labor shortages and market volatility over the past few years have put an unprecedented level of pressure on America’s farmers,” RJ Karney, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) director of Congressional Relations, said.” A 2019 Farm Bureau survey shows that an overwhelming majority of farmers and farmworkers say financial issues, farm or business problems and fear of losing their farm negatively impact their mental health.”
The bill was introduced by Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).
AFBF’s 2019 survey found a strong majority of rural adults (91 percent) said mental health is important to them and/or their family, while 82 percent of farmers/farmworkers said the same. Polling found that a majority of rural adults have either personally sought care (31 percent) or have a family member (24 percent) who has sought care for a mental health condition.
Three in four rural adults (75 percent) said it’s important to reduce stigma about mental health in the agricultural community, while two in three farmers/farmworkers (66 percent) said the same.
AFBF recently combined Bayer’s Farm State of Mind with its ongoing Rural Resilience campaign to expand the reach and effectiveness of its rural mental health initiatives. The campaign aims to reduce stigma surrounding the topic of mental health in rural communities and to provide relevant information to farm and ranch families.
In this new bill, I’m hoping that Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs) will be considered to be Mental Health service providers. While private insurers recognize LPC’s as frontline mental health providers, the Federal Government has in the past excluded licensed counselors from reimbursement for counseling. Bizarrely, the Feds do reimburse counseling fees if the counseling was provided by a Social Worker.