Investigating the role of the social worker in rural Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC), 20 CMHC and 595 community mental health workers were surveyed, including 140 social workers distributed in inner city (47), urban (9), urban-mixed (38), rural-mixed (29), and all-rural (17) catchment areas. Analyzed by center type and worker discipline, responses were compared in terms of the following variables: (1) Community Mental Health Ideology (endorsement); (2) Organizational Perception of CMHC (medical facility mode vs social service mode); (3) Professionalism; (4) CMHC Role Activism (role behavior response to 18 vignettes); (5) Personal-Professional Role Activism; (6) Role Discrepancy (CMHC's expectations vs social workers'); (7) Two Role Exclusion (perceived scope vs limitations). Findings indicated: (1) inner city and rural social workers most highly endorse CMHC ideology; (2) rural social workers, more than any others, view their CMHC as a social agency organization; (3) rural social workers, in contrast to others, perceive their organizations as expecting greater activism in their roles; (4) inner city social workers are most activist in role definition, while rural workers occupy a more modal position; (5) rural social workers perceive their CMHC's as expecting the fewest areas of community life to be excluded. (JC)