75% of rural counties have no or few mental-health care providers, and Texas is worst off; see interactive map

Mental-health care access by county. ABC News map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

A new analysis details the extent of rural mental-health care disparities. "Seventy-five percent of rural counties across the country have no mental-health providers, or fewer than 50 per 100,000 people," or one per 2,000, the recommended level, Kelly Livingston and Maggie Green of ABC News report on their analysis of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. "A majority of counties with no or few providers per capita are located in the Midwest and Southeast." Mental-health care deserts are most common in Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas; nearly half the counties in those states have no mental-health care providers at all.

Saul Levin, CEO and medical director for the American Psychiatric Association, told ABC that local mental-health services can forestall the need for more intensive treatment, which is  often more expensive. Laurie Gill, Cabinet secretary for the South Dakota Department of Social Services, "acknowledged that sometimes a lack of options at the local level has sometimes led to people in the state needing more intensive, inpatient psychiatric care, but said her department has been doing a gap analysis to identify needs in the mental healthcare system and fill them," ABC reports.

One critical demographic that needs better mental-health care access is children and teens, especially in rural areas. As a recent New York Times series shows, the pandemic has exacerbated a growing mental-health crisis among American youth. About 70% of U.S. counties lack a psychiatrist who specializes in children or teens, and it can take months to get an appointment even in counties that do have specialists.