Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced legislation to require the Government Accountability Office to study the barriers that ag communities face to access mental and behavioral health care services.
“This bill will help us understand the barriers they face and improve access to care for Americans in rural communities across the country,” Bennet said in a news release.
The legislation would assess the availability and accessibility of substance use treatment and mental health care geared toward ag communities, the barriers producers face in assessing substance use treatment and health care resources, programs at local levels that can be replicated at the federal level, and best practices among grantees of the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network.
“The limited resources available in our rural areas is statistically evident and profoundly felt among rural communities,” said Carlyle Currier, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau. “We believe the study proposed in this legislation would further raise awareness and embolden the work of mental health initiative.”
