Virginia Resources

Strengthening Mental Health Care in Southwest Virginia
Policy brief exploring mental health access in Southwest Virginia and the benefits of integrated primary care. Includes a section on rural care accessibility and provides insights on how to strengthen the mental health care system.
Author(s): Sety Abooali
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Virginia State Office of Rural Health
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Virginia Rural Hospital Report: The Challenge Before Us
Highlights the public health and economic contributions made by the 28 Virginia rural hospitals and the challenges they face. Features statistics on admissions, births, beds, and fulltime employees, and county-level maps showing locations of rural hospitals and Health Professional Shortage Areas.
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association
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Virginia Community Services Boards Behavioral Health Services: 2022
Report on activities of Virginia's Community Services Boards (CSBs), the state's primary mechanism for providing publicly funded behavioral health services in local communities. Includes a section on CSBs' role in providing services to rural areas. Features statistics on numbers of substance use disorder and mental health consumers, with breakdowns by urban and rural CSBs.
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission
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The Nursing Shortage and its Consequences in Rural Virginia
Policy brief exploring the statewide nursing shortage in Virginia, with a focus on rural areas. Offers insights into the cause of the crisis as well as areas for improvement. Features statistics on the number of healthcare workers who left their jobs from 2000-2022, leading to an overall healthcare workforce shortage.
Author(s): Sety Abooali
Date: 11/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: West Virginia State Office of Rural Health
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Consumer Finances in Rural Appalachia
Describes the financial needs and challenges of consumers in rural Appalachia. Features sections on consumer finance profiles, including a section on medical debt, and consumer distress and delinquencies. Appendix A includes state-level statistics for the 13 Appalachian states, including percent of rural people with medical debt in the state.
Author(s): Matthew Liu, Cooper Luce, Michael Orevba, Shawn Sebastian, Cortnie Shupe
Date: 09/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
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Integrating Employment Services with Substance Use Treatment and Recovery: The Experiences of Five Programs
Reports on the experiences of 5 treatment and recovery programs that integrated employment services into their program structure. Presents key findings that highlight program differences, organizational partnerships, and necessary accommodations for people in recovery from substance use disorder (SUD). Includes case study of a community recovery program situated in rural Virginia.
Author(s): Hannah Betesh, Deena Schwartz, Shelley Rappaport, Karin Martinson
Date: 08/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Administration for Children and Families, Building Evidence on Employment Strategies
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Telehealth Brings Important Services to Rural Long-Term Care Facilities
Discusses the benefits of telehealth services for residents and staff of rural long-term care facilities. Identifies some of the challenges related to providing these services. Features a New Hampshire skilled nursing facility providing telemental health services, and a Virginia geriatrician helping long-term care facilities address COVID-19 via Project ECHO educational sessions.
Author(s): Allee Mead
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 08/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Bottled and Well Water Quality in a Small Central Appalachian Community: Household-Level Analysis of Enteric Pathogens, Inorganic Chemicals, and Health Outcomes in Rural Southwest Virginia
Results of a study to characterize and assess household-level water sources, water quality, and associated health outcomes in Central Appalachia. Uses data from surveys and water samples from 9 households in a small rural community without utility-supplied water in southwest Virginia.
Author(s): Leigh-Anne Krometis, Marc Edwards, Teresa Brown, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8610
Date: 07/2022
Type: Document
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Farm Dinner Theater: Farmers Helping Farmers
Video highlighting a Cooperative Extension-led program where community members take part in dinner theater productions that focus on issues related to farm health.
Date: 07/2022
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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BuchananCares Program: A Team-based Care Pilot Led by a Rural Community Hospital and Local Pharmacist
Describes BuchananCares, a collaboration among health professionals from the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Buchanan General Hospital in rural Virginia, and the Virginia Department of Health. Designed to reduce patient readmissions and improve medication use for patients with COPD, diabetes, heart failure, and pneumonia.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Community Preventive Services Task Force
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