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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Community health workers

Engaging Community Health Workers/Youth Ambassadors to Improve Health Literacy: Proceedings of a Workshop – in Brief
Summarizes presentations and discussions from an April 2023 workshop on the use of community health workers and youth ambassadors to promote health literacy in their communities. Highlights lessons learned by Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19 and the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC) grantees who implemented health literacy approaches in community health worker and youth ambassador programs. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 07/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Equity, Multisector Collaboration and Innovation for Rural Health: Lessons from the National Rural Health Association Conference
Provides overview of topics discussed at the National Rural Health Association's Rural Health Equity Conference and Annual Rural Health Conference in May 2023 in San Diego, California. Topics include health equity, defining "rural," available data tools, community health workers, and more.
Author(s): Sagar B. Dugani, Randolph D. Hubach
Citation: Rural and Remote Health, 23(2)
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
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Tennessee Rural Health Care Task Force: Improving Rural Health Care Across Tennessee
Report from the Tennessee Rural Health Care Task Force. Offers recommendations to the state in the areas of access to care, workforce development, and social drivers of health. Discusses rural health research and advocacy, health insurance, telemedicine, workforce training, grants and loans, and more.
Author(s): Morgan McDonald, David Dill
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
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Assessing the Effectiveness of Policies to Improve Access to Primary Care for Underserved Populations: Case Study Analysis: Kanawha County, West Virginia
Case study of policy initiatives to increase access to primary care, focusing on Kanawha County, West Virginia. Discusses workforce shortages, healthcare access, structural barriers to primary care, healthcare affordability, and more.
Author(s): Maanasa Kona, Jalisa Clark, Emma Walsh-Alker, Megan Houston
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Milbank Memorial Fund
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How Community Health Workers Are Impacting Rural Communities
Describes ways in which communities can use funding to build community health worker programs in order to reduce health disparities. Highlights the University of Kansas Medical Center's Local Health Equity Action Teams initiative in 10 counties, 6 of which are rural.
Author(s): Shelby Rowell
Date: 04/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
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Role of Rural Libraries in Promoting Digital Health Literacy
Webinar highlighting a rural library's efforts to increase digital health literacy and healthcare access in rural Texas. Discusses telehealth, broadband access inequities and digital literacy, transportation issues, aging in place, community health workers working in libraries, emergency response, circulating medical equipment, and summer meals for students. Transcript available in the video description.
Date: 03/2023
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Network of the National Library of Medicine
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Obstetric Readiness in Rural Communities Lacking Hospital Labor and Delivery Units
Policy brief discussing the current rural maternal healthcare workforce and their capacity to manage obstetric emergencies during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Offers recommendations to promote obstetric readiness for emergency care in rural hospitals without obstetric units and support for community-based, emergency department-adjacent health workers.
Author(s): Eneka Lamb, Madeline Merwin, Quinyatta Mumford, et al.
Date: 02/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
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Access to Oral Health Workforce Report: Part II
Evaluates and discusses patient access to oral healthcare in Pennsylvania. Provides demographic and well-being information, and analysis of variables affecting workforce outcomes and access to care. Features statistics with breakdowns by urban and rural areas.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Sean G. Boynes, Helen Hawkey, Kelly A. Braun, et al.
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health
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State Policies for Expanding Medicaid Coverage of Community Health Worker (CHW) Services
Discusses state Medicaid coverage policies regarding Community Health Workers (CHWs) in place as of July 1, 2022, and planned for fiscal year 2023. Covers CHW coverage initiatives implemented or planned through Medicaid state plan amendments, Section 1115 demonstration authority, and as part of a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) model.
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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The Health Equity & Access for Rural Dually Eligible Individuals (HEARD) Toolkit: Raising Rural Voices from New Mexico, North Dakota, and Tennessee to Create Action
Provides an overview on the access barriers and health disparities of Medicaid and Medicare dually eligible individuals residing in rural areas. Presents research and stakeholder feedback from New Mexico, North Dakota, and Tennessee to provide information to policymakers. Discusses topics such as community planning related to equity and infrastructure, workforce capacity and community health workers (CHWs), and social determinants of health.
Author(s): Ellen Breslin, Samantha Di Paola, Susan McGeehan, Rebecca Kellenberg, Andrea Maresca
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Management Associates
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