The challenges of geography, culture, transportation, access to providers, dollars for services, stigma and awareness are all very real barriers to ensuring that individuals and communities on rural, frontier and tribal lands can and do receive behavioral health recovery opportunities. Mental Health America's Eliminating Behavioral Health Disparities Project (EBHD) is working to meet and overcome them.

Three program initiatives grew out of a regional forum held in Albuquerque, NM, in March, 2008, for rural, frontier and tribal communities for the mountain and upper plains states region (HHS 8).

This past June 21-23, a second forum for the region in Grand Junction, Colorado, brought together advocate representatives from Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Presentations were made on the current three programs, a peer-workforce initiative on tribal lands in Shiprock, NM; a documentary of conditions on both rural ranch and Indian reservations; and a culturally astute mental health curriculum for non-native providers and providers working in ranch and farm communities.

The EBHD initiative is currently funded by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. The work of the six Mental Health America state advocacy groups is being expanded to include three more initiatives, along with greater collaboration between projects, a shared perspective on policy and waivers as health reform begins to play out in the states, and an increased partnership around funding and evaluation.

For more information, to get involved, or to contribute to the project, contact Kate Gaston, Vice President of Affiliate Services and EBHD projects director at kgaston@mentalhealthamerica.net. ::