ABSTRACT
Rural and frontier represents well over 90% of America’s land mass and 25% of its population. We rely on rural areas for much in the way of food and natural resources. This chapter explores the myriad formal and informal definitions of rural and frontier and the reasons they are important. It uses Delaware County, New York, as an example of a rural area with no close proximity to a city. The terms behavioral health and mental health are explored and contrasted, and a picture of what exactly a rural mental health practitioner is begins to emerge. The terms urban and rural are explored, as are the terms urbanormativity and urbancentric. The stereotype of rural as a homogeneous group is shattered, and we begin to see a picture of what rural truly consists of.
