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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Access

Addressing the Rising Mental Health Needs of an Aging Population: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summary of a May 2023 workshop discussing mental health care for older adults, including challenges and strategies for meeting mental health needs. Discusses disparities, social determinants of health, access, workforce, interventions and support, rural challenges, and more.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Health Care Services
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Treating Rural America: The Last Doctor in Town
3 part documentary discussing challenges with accessing healthcare in rural communities. Part 1, "The Last Doctor in Town," highlights shortages of physicians in rural areas. Part 2, "The New Country Doctors," discusses rural residencies and the role of a rural physician. Part 3, "The Telehealth Solution," discusses the role of telehealth as a possible solution for barriers to care. Captions are available in the video player.
Additional links: The New Country Doctors, The Telehealth Solution
Author(s): Hyacinth Empinado
Date: 2023
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: STAT
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Supporting and Sustaining the Current and Future Workforce to Care for People with Serious Illness: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023)
Summarizes discussions from an April 2023 public workshop exploring strategies and approaches to address major workforce challenges, including health professional well-being, workforce shortages, workforce training and retention, and advancing the diversity, equity, and inclusion of the workforce. Includes a section on well-being of the clinical workforce in rural areas.
Author(s): Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Disparities in Spatial Accessibility of Primary Care in Louisiana: From Physical to Virtual Accessibility
Evaluates both physical and virtual accessibility to primary care physicians (PCPs) across Louisiana. Analyzes disparities in access between rural and urban areas, the Black population and the general population, and for Area Deprivation Index (ADI) areas.
Author(s): Fahui Wang, Yutian Zeng, Lingbo Liu, Tracy Onega
Citation: Frontiers in Public Health, 11, 1154574
Date: 2023
Type: Document
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Access to Jobs, Economic Opportunities, and Education in Rural Areas
Provides an overview of the challenges experienced in rural communities such as connectivity issues; access to goods, social services, and healthcare; and a lack of educational and economic opportunities. Includes implementation strategies for rural communities to evaluate, plan for, and improve accessibility, along with related case studies.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Transportation Research Board
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Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity: Lessons Learned in Addressing Inequities in Heat-Related Climate Change Impacts: Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief
Summary of a National Academies' Environmental Health Matters Initiative workshop in June 2023 discussing health equity for heat-related climate change. Highlights challenges with data gathering, recent policy changes, capacity building, and partnerships. Includes discussion of rural specific challenges, occupational health for farmworkers and other outdoor workers, and healthcare access.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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The Future Pediatric Subspecialty Physician Workforce: Meeting the Needs of Infants, Children, and Adolescents
Reports on barriers to increasing the pediatric subspecialist workforce and discusses the impact on research to improve health outcomes for children. Discusses access to care, education of the workforce, reimbursement rates, and more. Highlights rural specific challenges throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Children, Youth, and Families
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Health Disparities in Central Nervous System Disorders: Driving Transformative Change: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief
Highlights the proceedings of a workshop on strategies to reduce health disparities relating to central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Explores CNS health disparities in rural and low-income communities and among racial and ethnic minority groups, such as American Indian and Alaska Native tribal nations. Discusses the roles academia, industry, and the government have in creating a diverse neuroscience workforce to advance community partnerships and collaborations.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Health Sciences Policy
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Toward Equitable Innovation in Health and Medicine: A Framework
Report describing a framework for decision-making during the innovation process for the purpose of equitable distribution of health and medicine. The framework considers who innovation is for, who has a say in developing the innovation, access to innovation, and the distribution of the value of the innovation. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Health Sciences Policy
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Improving Access to High-Quality Mental Health Care for Veterans: Proceedings of a Workshop
Presents a workshop focusing on mental healthcare access for veterans. Discusses some of the challenges the VA faces in delivering mental healthcare to veterans, particularly those in rural and low-income communities. Explores methods to improve mental health access and highlights best practices.
Author(s): Board on Health Care Services
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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