An article co-written by Family Social Science Ph.D. student Emily Jordan Jensen and Associate Professor Tai Mendenhall has been accepted and published in Contemporary Family Therapy.

“Call to Action: Family Therapy and Rural Mental Health,” is a review of every article published over the past 20 years in family journals related to mental health in rural communities. The team found 18 articles.

Jensen and Mendenhall discovered that the research points to three primary barriers that prevent rural communities from accessing high quality mental health care: availability, accessibility and acceptability. In their article, they issue a “call to action” to family clinicians and researchers and provide recommendations for further contributions.

“Family social science is uniquely positioned to really make a difference in this area,” says Jensen. “I hope this article helps to build a bigger research agenda around the needs of rural communities.”

Their article is available online at SpringerLink.