For more than a decade, NIMH has provided support to the National Association for Rural Mental Health's (NARMH) Annual Conference by sponsoring and traveling plenary speakers, panel presentations, and individual researcher presentations. However, this process has been full of uncertainty involving last minute decisions regarding funding availability. This uncertainty has resulted in the NARMH's Annual Conference being unable to support and """"""""showcase"""""""" rural and frontier researchers and research to the extent necessary to forward the rural and frontier research agenda. This grant would provide five years of support to NARMH for its Annual Conference. This stable and predictable support would enable NARMH to achieve the following broad goals: 1) Provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to disseminate current findings on service system research and interventions specific to rural and frontier areas, 2) foster a network of individuals who are interested in conducting and using this research. Specific goals for current and future Annual Conferences are to present research findings on the following topics: 1) Outcome assessment of an intervention curriculum designed to encourage and assist farm families to utilize their mental health care and enhance their mental health status, 2) Evaluation of innovative new service system financing models appropriate for rural and frontier communities, 3) Monitoring the increasing cultural diversity of rural areas and assessing the implications for clinical training and practice to ensure that providers are sensitive to the cultural views that diverse populations have regarding mental health treatment, 4) Development of practice-based guidelines for rural mental health care, 5) Can diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems be delivered through telemental health at least as effectively as care delivered face to face? 6) What can we learn from other countries and the models they use for improving rural mental health service delivery? A Conference Planning Committee will be created comprised of individuals who represent specific areas of expertise including mental health research; mental health policy; public sector research; government and university researchers; consumer/survivors; family members; and representatives from CMHS and NIMH. This group will be responsible for establishing a strategic direction and substantive focus for NARMH conferences over the five-year period of the grant, as well as helping to plan each year's conference. The Conference Planning Committee will convene twice a year, in a face-to-face meeting at the Annual Conference and through a teleconference in November. In addition, this grant will also support the participation at each year conference's of NIMH funded mental health services researchers and dissemination of their research findings. ? ? ? ?
