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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Social connectedness

The Health and Social Impacts of the Maui Wildfires: Post-Disaster Care from a Sociocultural Lens
Highlights the impact of a wildfire event on existing health and social service disparities in Maui, Hawaii. Discusses housing, employment, finances, mental health, suicide risk, culture, social isolation, rurality, and service limitations. Notes opportunities and challenges for addressing these impacts using telehealth and outside assistance.
Author(s): Ryan Holliday, Lauren S. Krishnamurti, Shiloh E. Jordan, et al.
Citation: Hawai'i Journal of Health & Social Welfare, 83(3), 85-87
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
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Rural Communities and Building Social Connection for Older Adults and People with Disabilities
Discusses social isolation in rural contexts for older adults and people with disabilities. Notes opportunities and resources for social engagement in the areas of transportation, access to healthcare, technology, and community partnerships. Includes examples of social engagement programs.
Date: 02/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Commit to Connect
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Identifying Our Needs: A Survey of Elders Cycle VIII (2020-2023) - 2024 Final Report
Report highlights data collected from a survey of American Indian and Alaska Native elders regarding their health and wellness. Explores reported rates of healthcare access, substance use, social support, housing, healthcare screening, and more.
Additional links: Infographic: Caregiving and Socialization Among Native Elders, Infographic: Frailty and Physical Functioning Among Native Elders, Infographic: Native Elders in the United States, Infographic: Nutrition Among Native Elders
Date: 2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Resource Center on Native American Aging
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Primary Care Professionals' Perspectives on Tailoring Buprenorphine Training for Rural Practice
Interviewed 23 rural Ohio primary care professionals to identify barriers to prescribing buprenorphine for opioid use disorder treatment. Discusses the need for training addressing rural-specific barriers, limited patient access to required social supports, workforce, and stigma. Offers recommendations based on findings.
Author(s): Cheyenne Fenstemaker, Elizabeth A. Abrams, Benjamin Obringer, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 2024
Date: 2024
Type: Document
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Women Veterans: The Journey to Mental Wellness
Report discussing mental health for female veterans. Discusses topics including suicide prevention with a focus on rural issues, abuse and violence, substance use, eating disorders, social connectedness, maternity, and care coordination. Offers policy and research recommendations to the Veterans Health Administration.
Additional links: Quick Glance
Date: 2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Disabled American Veterans
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Rural-Urban Differences in Social and Emotional Protective Factors and Their Association with Child Health and Flourishing
Examines differences in childhood protective factors in rural and urban communities that correlate with childhood health and wellness. Utilizes 2018-2021 data from the National Survey of Children's Health to analyze protective factors such as caregiver emotional and social support, caregiver mental and physical health, family resilience and connectedness, neighborhood and school safety, and more. Includes rural versus urban comparisons with data further broken down by race/ethnicity, sex, age, health status, and marriage status of caregiver.
Author(s): Rose Y. Hardy, Samantha J. Boch, Mattina A. Davenport, Laura J. Chavez, Kelly J. Kelleher
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 40(2), 314-325
Date: 2024
Type: Document
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A Community-Engaged Approach to Understanding Suicide in a Small Rural County in Georgia: A Two-Phase Content Analysis of Individual and Focus Group Interviews
Evaluates the need for suicide prevention and appropriateness of prevention efforts in a rural Georgia county by presenting analysis of 20 individual interviews and 2 focus groups conducted August 2021-June 2022. Covers individual and community contextual drivers of suicide, facilitators and barriers of medical and social support access, linkage gaps in mental health care services, and community response. Discusses schools, a military base, nonprofit and religious organizations, and other institutional supports for suicide prevention.
Author(s): Kimberly Beth Roth, Eleni Gaveras, Fatima Ghiathi, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(24), 7145
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
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Impacts of Transit on Health in Rural and Small Urban Areas
Overview of how public transportation affects health in rural and small urban areas. Summarizes findings from a literature review that looked at public transportation as it relates to the social determinants of health, healthcare access, physical activity, social isolation, and mental health. Also reports results from a survey of rural older adults supplemented by data analysis looking at travel for healthcare, challenges related to public transportation, and the impacts of missed or delayed healthcare trips.
Author(s): Jeremy Mattson, Bright Quayson
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
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Engaging Families and Providers When Aligning Early Childhood and Medicaid Systems: State Lessons
Describes how the alignment of health and social supports and services offered by Medicaid and early childhood agencies can create systems that better meet the needs of families with young children. Outlines four strategies states can use to engage families and providers when working on systems alignment effectively. Highlights an Alaska initiative that worked with a local community organization to recruit rural providers and families to identify opportunities for service improvement.
Author(s): Lauren Scannelli Jacobs, Armelle Casau
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Care Strategies
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Disparities in LTSS Needs and Supportive Resources at Age 55, and Outcome Disparities During the Next Decade
Reports on disparities in long-term services and supports (LTSS) needs and resources of adults at age 55, and analyzes outcomes over the next 10 years of their lives, using 2008-2018 longitudinal Health and Retirement Study data. Covers race and ethnicity, rural or urban setting, and other demographic information. Highlights financial resources, health insurance, social supports, cognitive decline, assets, and more.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: ATI Advisory, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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