Serving
the Rural Underserved
Since 2000 the Center for Rural Psychology has
been training Master's and Doctoral students in the unique skills and values
required to competently serve underserved rural communities. We are proud of
our students, many of whom are now putting their training to use in rural communities
from Alaska to Tennessee.
See what our Alumni are doing..
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 CRP
Beginnings
I n the spring of 2000, Wheaton College faculty members Michael Mangis
and Don Preussler reviewed statistics about the severe shortage of mental
health professionals in rural communities. One of the most startling: No
mental health services exist in 55% of US counties. All of those counties
are rural.
Mangis and Preussler witnessed many rural students entering graduate programs
in psychology with a dream of serving rural communities. Most of these students,
however, graduated to settle in the suburbs where they trained and had grown
comfortable.
Attempting to reverse this trend, in August 2000, Don and Michael determined
to create a counseling center where students could be trained to serve rural
communities. In the rural village of Elburn, Illinois they met Bruce Conley,
director of Conley Outreach Community Services. Their dreams intertwined and
the Center for Rural Psychology was born.
Together they established Heartland Counseling in the charming Victorian home
of Bruce’s Grandma Carrie. Since then rural clients have been served and
graduate students have been trained in rural models of community mental health.
| Fifty-five percent of the counties
in the United States–all of them rural–have no mental health professionals |
Now students
who want to serve rural areas have a chance to learn the unique skills
and values of rural commnunitiy mental health. |
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The
mission of the Center for Rural Psychology is to serve the mental health
needs of underserved rural communities. We will do this by:
- Training
Christian mental health professionals with the unique skills and knowledge
to effectively serve in rural communities;
- Providing psychological
consultation, support, and training to professionals and natural helpers
in underserved
rural communities.
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Rural Realities
There
are basically two kinds of rural communities in the US–those that
are being swallowed up by suburbs and those that are dwindling as their
residents seek a living in more populated areas. About 90 percent of
land
in the
United States is considered rural and less than 25% of the population
lives there. Over half of these rural counties are considered impoverished.
In the past 20 years rural rates of suicide, violence, delinquency,
and drug and alcohol abuse have surpassed those in urban areas.
Fifty-five
percent of the counties in the United States–all of them rural–have
no
mental health professionals to address these enormous needs.
Even
students who enter graduate
school with a passion for rural needs gradually gravitate toward
comfortable suburban practices. That is what they see modeleds. Now
we can keep at least a few of these students focused on the dream
of serving rural communities and give them the skills and knowledge
to help
make the dream a reality.
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