Psychological practice in rural and remote settings involves several unique personal and professional challenges. Generally, very few psychology trainees are formally prepared for those challenges because curriculum components and supervised practice experiences tend to be focused on urban and metropolitan settings. Perhaps not surprisingly, historical shortages of specialty mental health professionals are a persistent problem in most rural communities (DeLeon et al., 2003). For example, in Australia, one quarter of the population lives in rural and remote areas (Harvey & Hodgson, 1995), but only about 12 percent of all Australian psychologists live and work in those areas (Griffiths & Kenardy, 1996).

Mental health services in rural communities

There is no consensus regarding the definitions of rural or remote as opposed to metropolitan, but a common characteristic of rural and remote communities is that they are descriptive of areas where the population density is low (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002) and geographic distance imposes restriction upon accessibility to the widest range of goods and services and opportunities for social interaction (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). Long distances and harsh environmental conditions constitute significant barriers for rural residents to access mental health services (DeLeon et al., 2003). Likewise, delivering services to where they are needed by consumers can be a daunting routine if a home visit by a psychologist means driving several hundred kilometers (Lichte, 1996).