Southwest Virginia has a shortage of psychiatrists, a problem in rural areas, especially for veterans

Here's a story that needs to be done in many rural areas. The Roanoke Times is reporting on a shortage of psychiatrists in Southwest Virginia.

Sarah Bruyn Jones reports that the New River Valley has only 17 licensed psychiatrists, fewer than 1 for every 10,000 residents. The Roanoke area has a better ratio, but almost 25 percent are at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salem. In Virginia as a whole, the average is 2.9 per 10,000 residents. (Read more)

This is a story that is increasingly important to write, as veterans continue to return from combat overseas. Returning war veterans have psychological problems and are disproportionately rural. As we have noted, a recent study in West Virginia found rural veterans there returning from Iraq or Afghanistan with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression compared to their urban counterparts. This discrepancy was blamed on a lack of mental-health care providers in rural areas.