Considerations for Correctional Mental Health in Rural Areas

1 Hour | 1 CE

This on-demand professional training program on Considerations for Correctional Mental Health in Rural Areas is presented by Tamara Kang, PhD.

This badge-earning program can be shared digitally on platforms like LinkedIn or your resume and counts towards a certificate. Enroll in this program to earn credit towards the Correctional Mental Health Certificate and share your new digital credentials with prospective employers and colleagues.

In rural areas, providing interventions to all persons under corrections or community corrections supervision is complicated by the limited infrastructural supports inherent to rurality. When the person also has mental health needs, they face additional barriers, such as limited mental health service options and inadequate community knowledge of what mental health services are available and how they work. Often, rurality contributes to reluctance to disclose mental health problems for fear of stigmatization due to the tight-knit nature of rural communities, which can fuel self-stigma and result in nonadherence to treatment and medication. On the other side of the coin, rural providers tirelessly work to provide quality services while being given minimal resources and juggling large caseloads.

This program focuses on: (1) providing quality services in corrections while also managing large caseloads, minimal resources, and provider burnout and fatigue, and (2) providing services to persons under corrections or community corrections supervision as they navigate the limited infrastructural supports, such as scarcity of employment opportunities, the proportion of agricultural land limits available housing, no public transportation, widespread inaccessibility to services, and limited access to modern technology.

Given that the field has historically relied on resource-dependent interventions, which require infrastructural supports that rural areas do not have, the program concludes with case examples that fosters discussion about how to offer quality services when the reality is understaffing and minimal resources, which then often translates into provider burnout, frustration, fear (e.g., not enough staff to handle violence), and belief that recovery is impossible.

This program is designed for mental health providers and allied professionals working in corrections or community corrections settings, including correctional facilities, inpatient mental health facilities, or as community providers serving justice-involved individuals on probation or parole. Ideal participants include those specializing in forensic or correctional mental health, substance abuse counseling, or healthcare roles like physicians or physician assistants who frequently address the mental health needs of justice-involved populations, including cases involving mental illness and violence.