Colorado’s John Denver glamorized rural life 50 years ago, singing “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.” Fast-forward to 2024, and Colorado’s country residents are begging God for mercy.

A high percentage of urban voters along the Front Range, many of them transplants from large coastal metroplexes, don’t understand rural people and their lifestyles. Their interaction with agriculture typically begins and ends at the grocery store.

The mostly urban Legislature and Democratic governor have demonized meat production, irrigation, local control of education, coal production, oil production, gas production, gun rights, gas- and diesel-powered equipment and just about everything else important to farmers and rural villagers.

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Urban voters forced livestock- and pet-killing wolves on rural areas. As documented in a Gazette news article, the wolf kills alone are causing rural anxiety and grief.

Given all this, it’s no surprise to hear of a rural mental health crisis. A recent Gazette news article cites experts calling rural Colorado — which makes up 80% of the state’s landmass — a “mental health desert.”

The Colorado Rural Health Center reports one mental health care provider for every 755 urban residents, compared with 1 for every 1,282 of their rural counterparts.

“All of Colorado is a mental health desert, so if you’re having difficulty recruiting in an urban area, it’s twice as hard in a rural location,” said Michelle Mills, CEO of the Rural Health Center.

Federal regulation is also in the way, because health clinics lose certification if they allocate more than 49% of resources to mental health. It’s a stupid regulation, as health providers should allocate services based on demand — not random rations dictated by Washington bureaucrats.

Fortunately, mental health care differs from surgery and other direct-contact services. Often, one can obtain counseling and prescriptions through telehealth, which requires a patient have only a computer or a smartphone and a good broadband connection.

Broadband remains an obstacle to resolving this problem as quickly as we should. A newly formed state Connectivity Interim Study Committee, which met in July, is working on connecting Colorado’s broadband deserts to the rest of the world.

The Legislature, governor and philanthropic leaders should make this effort among the highest of priorities. Get all the state connected and incentivize more telehealth options. Urban Coloradans might not understand rural society, but they need it and will suffer if people continue giving up their increasingly stressful lives of ranching, farming and mining.

Partly because of hostile economics and rural burnout, corporations are taking over farms — many of them Chinese — at an alarming rate. If food prices are too high, imagine when a handful of companies control production without the bother of competition from family operations passed down through generations.

As for the negative stigma attached to mental health care — exacerbated by the self-sufficient pride of farm country — it is time to move forward. The toughest, strongest, most resilient people seek help when they need it. That’s what keeps them able to provide for themselves and others.

Besides, no one should look down on rural people for needing help in a cultural and regulatory environment increasingly stacked against them.

Colorado needs a healthy countryside, so let’s get busy bringing mental health care — and all other forms of care — to the people who provide the food and energy we need to live. Let’s work to restore and preserve the idyllic rural lifestyles long celebrated in music, poetry and lore.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board