Iowa City, Iowa — A University of Iowa clinic is offering free, short-term mental health counseling to rural Iowans who have limited or zero access to it, in addition to substance use prevention and treatment.
Iowa psychology professor Martin Kivlighan is co-director of the Telepsychology Training Clinic. He says they’re also providing a learning platform to teach the next generation of mental health professionals, who are in very short supply.
Nearly 90 percent of Iowa counties are considered mental health care professional shortage areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which ranks Iowa 46th in the nation in the number of psychologists per capita.
In a recent success story, Kivlighan says one of the clinic’s third-year doctoral students has announced she plans to return to her hometown in rural Kossuth County to open a counseling practice after graduating.
They’re encountering no one who’s averse to the technology, as he says the pandemic taught many of us how to use and be comfortable with video chats on our computers or phones.
Rural Iowans who’d like to use the free service can find a contact phone number and email address at the website: https://education.uiowa.edu/research/research-centers-and-research-initiatives/rural-psychology-collaborative
