Deborah A. Reed, MD

Rural psychiatry is on the threshold of an immense transformation. Across the country, each state, faced with mandates to cut budgets and conserve health care spending, is in the complex process of negotiating the changing world of health care reimbursement and the redistribution of ever-shrinking funds. Since the majority of rural psychiatric care is delivered at community mental health centers, which rely heavily on state and federal government funding and initiatives, rural psychiatrists are likely to find themselves battling bureaucratic waves that challenge their resourcefulness and ardor.