The Rural Regional Behavioral Health Policy Board (Rural RBHPB) represents a six-county area in northeastern Nevada, including Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Pershing, and White Pine Counties. The map below (Figure 2 from the 2020 Rural Behavioral Health Profile, which can be found in its entirety in Appendix B) illustrates the location of the Rural Region in grey, as well as the other four regions.
Like all other sectors, 2020 saw new challenges and increased strain on the regional behavioral health system due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related response. As described in the next section, the region already experienced chronic shortages of behavioral health providers while facing increasing community need for treatment in the areas of anxiety, depression, substance misuse, and alcohol abuse. Many local healthcare providers reported to representatives of the Rural RBHPB or its unofficial support staff, the Rural Regional Behavioral Health Coordinator (Rural RBHC) that they experienced an initial wave of persons experiencing mental health crises presenting to local emergency departments (EDs) early in the pandemic, followed by a second wave of persons presenting to the EDs with emergencies related to substance or alcohol abuse. The list of major concerns voiced to the Rural RBHPB and the Rural RBHC are listed in the figure below