The Mighty Mind

Rural Stakeholders Building Competence and Capacity to
Mitigate Pressing Mental Health Issues Through CER

Northern Neck Health, Inc. (N2Health) aspires to see residents of the rural communities of Northern Neck Region, Virginia and Arkansas with access to comprehensive and competent mental health services and knowledge. During an N2Health PCORI 2020-2021 convening project, community stakeholders and health system leaders cited an increase in mental health issues and a shortage of resources in the region. The project found chronic shortages of mental health professionals, extensive travel times to acquire mental health services, and stigma in rural communities to be major challenges to mental health services and knowledge.

This project will employ a grassroots approach to build the competence and capacity of rural stakeholders in Northern Neck, Virginia and Arkansas. These stakeholders will engage in a future comparative effectiveness research (CER) project that will identify the best strategies to mitigate pressing mental health challenges. The goal of this capacity building project is to build the knowledge, capacity and competence of rural community stakeholders (patients, patient advocates and providers).

The activities of this project will be guided by four objectives:

  1. Establish a rural mental health network of 40 participants across two regions and conduct three structured information and planning meetings (years 1-2); 
  2. Develop a digital learning and communications tool that will support current and future dissemination of collaborative activities and PCOR-CER findings (year 1); 
  3. Adapt a patient and provider-relevant curriculum for five structured workshops that focus on mental health and findings from previous PCOR-CER studies and deliver the structured workshops to project participants (years 1-2); and 
  4. Plan and conduct four research generating sessions to develop the elements of a research plan (year 2)

N2Health visualizes five concrete outcomes:

 

  1. A viable multi-region network of rural mental health stakeholders will exist. This outcome is important for engagement, learning and input of key stakeholders (Short term – 3+years post-award).
  2. A research agenda and plan for a CER focused on the mitigation of rural mental health issues will be in place. This outcome will assure that the CER patient and stakeholder-guided (Short term).
  3. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences – School of Public Health will take the lead on submission of a CER grant. This outcome will facilitate the comparison of multiple interventions in the field to assess the efficacy in rural communities (0-3+ years post award).
  4. A multi-year CER is implemented in rural Northern Neck and Arkansas. This outcome will facilitate the comparison of multiple interventions in the field to assess the efficacy in rural communities (0-3+ years post award).
  5. Sustainability funds from multiple funding streams are in place for a Northern Neck Rural Mental Health Village that is part of the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). This outcome will improve local access to mental health support (3+years).

Of the 40 stakeholders, there will be 20 from the Northern Neck and 20 from rural Arkansas. N2Health and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have existing relationships with stakeholders from prior engagement projects. Stakeholders will be engaged through three virtual information meetings (network capacity), five virtual training workshops (network competence) and four virtual research generating sessions (application of capacity and competence).