This is the second edition of a report listing internships and graduate training programs with a rural emphasis first published in 1993. It includes information on additional internships and programs not reported in the first edition. We have also changed the reporting format to make the listing easier to use. The report is intended to be helpful to psychology students and faculty with an interest in rural areas and to promote the delivery of psychological services to underserved rural populations.

The Practice Directorate's Office of Rural Health receives requests from health policy bodies concerning psychology training programs with a rural emphasis and also many inquiries from undergraduate and graduate students regarding internship and psychology training programs that deal with rural issues; these queries led us to develop this listing. The Office has a mission to assist psychologists in rural areas in improving the health of rural residents by developing initiatives to promote rural psychological practice, education, and research. The Office has undertaken projects that involve collaborative practice with primary care physicians, the development of an interdisciplinary curriculum for use in providing rural behavioral health care, a newsletter for rural psychologists, and a World Wide Web site called RuralPSYCH (http://www.apa.org/rural/homepage.html) to serve as a resource center for rural behavioral health.

In 1997, all graduate programs and schools of psychology and APA-accredited predoctoral internship programs were contacted to determine if they dealt with rural issues. Those programs that self-identified a rural interest were surveyed during the past year to gather more detailed information. The data gathered in that survey were analyzed and tabulated. This report is a compilation of the verified information. The information reported is limited to the information received. There may be omissions in the lists provided based on non-responding. Readers are encouraged to contact the Office of Rural Health via e-mail with additional entries as well as more detailed information.

An acknowledgement and thanks are due Tammy Lucas of the Office of Rural Health who surveyed the rural internship and training programs in psychology and tabulated the data, and to Joanne Brazinski of the APA MIS department for the development of the survey database. We also appreciate the assistance of David S. Hargrove, Ph.D. of the University of Mississippi and Peter A. Keller, Ph.D. of Mansfield University who developed the survey items.

We hope that the report will be useful to students and their faculty advisors and that it will stimulate more interest in rural behavioral health among training programs and internships. For additional information on individual programs, it is suggested that the reader contact the "respondent" identified for each program.

Russ Newman, Ph.D., J.D.
Executive Director for Professional Practice

James G. (Gil) Hill
Director, Office of Rural Health