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Rural mental health

Laura Nicholson is a specialist registrar in the psychiatry of learning disabilities with the West of Scotland Deanery (Department of Learning Disabilities, West House, Gartnavel Royal Hospital, 1055 Great Western Road, Glasgow G12 0XH, UK. Email: laurarobinson{at}doctors.org.uk). Her current research interests are rural mental health and learning disabilities, and she has spent a number of years working as a psychiatrist in rural Scotland.

A significant proportion of people live and work in rural areas, and rural mental health is important wherever psychiatry is practised. There are inherent difficulties in conducting rural research, due in part to the lack of an agreed definition of rurality. Mental health is probably better in rural areas, with the exception of suicide, which remains highest in male rural residents. A number of aspects of rural life (such as the rural community, social networks, problems with access, and social exclusion) may all have particular implications for people with mental health problems. Further issues such as the effect of rural culture on help-seeking for mental illness, anonymity in small rural communities and stigma may further affect the recognition, treatment and maintenance of mental health problems for people in rural areas. Providing mental health services to remote and rural locations may be challenging.