Veterans and Families in rural and remote communities
Overview
Veterans and Families that live in rural and remote communities face unique barriers in accessing the mental health services they need. Not only do they experience similar barriers to Veterans and Families living in urban centres, such as stigma and a lack of cultural competency among providers, but they can also face different hindrances to accessibility. These barriers include the availability of services, such as the number of providers and types of services available in these communities. Additionally, geographical disparities, such as reliable Internet access and travel costs, are key considerations in improving mental health care access in these communities.
What is a rural or remote community?
In Canada, rural and remote communities may be defined as areas inside a census metropolitan area or census agglomeration that are not population centres1. These communities have a smaller population size and may be isolated with limited access to resources, services and infrastructure. In some cases, these communities have limited or no year-round road access. For these reasons, Veterans and Family members living in these areas face challenges in accessing mental health services that are unique when compared to those living in urban centres.
Research
Rural and remote roundtable
The Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families hosted a roundtable in Winnipeg, MB in October 2024 to explore barriers to mental health care for rural and remote Veterans and Families and possible policy solutions to address those barriers. Attendees included service providers, researchers, government policy makers, Veterans and Families with either lived experience working or living in rural and remote communities.
The findings from this roundtable have been synthesized into a summary report.
This resource was prepared by the Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families. The Atlas Institute would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to this report. Please note that the names listed include only those who have explicitly consented to being acknowledged as a contributor.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Approval
Fardous Hosseiny, MaryAnn Notarianni, V. Joy Pavelich
Conceptualization
Meriem Benlamri, Gabrielle Dupuis, Cara Kane, Robin Dziekan, Leo Goudal, Ashlee Mulligan
Editing
Meriem Benlamri, Gabrielle Dupuis, Robin Dziekan, Leo Goudal, Cara Kane, Krystle Kung, Ashlee Mulligan, MaryAnn Notarianni, Lori-Anne Thibault, Courtney Wright
Methodology
Robin Dziekan, Leo Goudal, Cara Kane
Research and analytics
Leo Goudal
Supervision
Meriem Benlamri, Gabrielle Dupuis, Cara Kane, Ashlee Mulligan
Visualization
Wendy Sullivan
Writing
Leo Goudal
Suggested citation
- Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families. The art of the possible: Working together across systems to address barriers to mental health care for rural and remote Veterans and Families. Ottawa, ON: 2025. Available from: atlasveterans.ca/rural-remote-roundtable-report
Interested in learning more about the Atlas Institute’s approach to recognizing contributions to these resources? Check out our contributorship model for more information.
Additionally, Atlas collaborated with McMaster Health Forum to develop a rapid evidence profile (REP), a structured and rigorous document that provides a high-level overview and quality assessment of current research evidence focused on Veterans and Families living in rural and remote communities.
The REP framework was informed by roundtable participants.
- Statistics Canada. Dictionary, Census of Population, 2021 – Census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomeration (CA) [Internet]. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada; 2022. Available from: statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/ref/dict/az/definition-eng.cfm?ID=geo009
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