Rural suicide rates and availability of health care providers

Suicide rates are higher in rural than in urban areas in the United States. One explanation that is frequently offered is scarcity of health and mental health treatment providers in rural areas. The current study tested whether number of providers per capita would explain differences in urban and rural suicide rates within the counties of California, using data from 1993–2001. Results indicate suicide rates were higher in more rural counties, entirely due to higher rural rates among European Americans. Findings also confirmed that there were fewer physicians and mental health care providers per capita in rural areas. Nonetheless, number of providers per capita was not related to suicide rates and thus could not explain the rural–urban differential in suicide rates. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 33: 537–543, 2005.