Effective Rural Project Examples - Rural Health Information Hub

Updated/reviewed July 2024

Need: Improve healthcare access and decrease chronic disease disparities in rural Appalachia.
Intervention: A unique community health worker-based chronic care management program, created with philanthropy support.
Results: After a decade of use in attending to population health needs, health outcomes, healthcare costs, in 2024, the medical condition-agnostic model has a 4-year track record of financial sustainability with recent scaling to include 31 rural counties in a 3-state area of Appalachia and recent implementation in urban areas.

Updated/reviewed July 2024

Need: Expand healthcare access for the more remote residents of 3 frontier counties in north central Idaho.
Intervention: With early federal grant-funding, a consortium of healthcare providers and community agencies used a hybrid Community Health Worker model to augment traditional healthcare delivery services in order to offer a diverse set of health-related interventions to frontier area residents.
Results: With additional private grant funding, success continued to build into the current model of an established and separate CHW division within the health system's population health department.

Updated/reviewed June 2024

Need: To provide Lakota elders with tools and opportunities for advance care planning.
Intervention: An outreach program in South Dakota helps Lakota elders with advance care planning and wills by providing bilingual brochures and advance directive coaches.
Results: Care for Our Elders saw an increase in the number of Lakota elders understanding the differences between a will and a living will and the need to have end-of-life discussions with family and healthcare providers.

Updated/reviewed May 2024

Need: To reduce the risk of HIV/STDs among Latino men living in rural regions of the United States.
Intervention: Soccer team leaders are elected and trained as lay health advisors to promote sexual health education among team members.
Results: Program participants report an increase in HIV testing, an increase in condom use, and an increase in awareness of how to prevent the transmission of HIV.

Updated/reviewed May 2024

Need: To reduce overdose-related deaths among prescription opioid users in rural Wilkes County, North Carolina
Intervention: Education and tools are provided for prescribers, patients and community members to lessen drug supply and demand, and to reduce harm in prescription opioid use
Results: Opioid overdose death rates have decreased in Wilkes County

Updated/reviewed March 2024

Need: To support parents whose children have been removed from the home so that the parents can make the changes needed for the children to return safely home.
Intervention: A statewide program in Iowa pairs these parents with mentors who have successfully navigated their own child welfare cases.
Results: Participants' children were more likely to return home than non-participants' children and participants were less likely to have another child removal within a year of the child coming home.

Updated/reviewed March 2024

Need: To increase access to telemental health services for rural veterans, especially women, with a history of trauma.
Intervention: STAIR (Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation) is a 10-week program designed to reduce PTSD and depression symptoms and increase emotional regulation and social functioning in clients.
Results: Therapists reported that clients attended more sessions when offered via teleconferencing, and clients reported satisfaction with the program.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To develop sustainable, community-wide prevention methods for cardiovascular diseases in order to change behaviors and healthcare outcomes in rural Maine.
Intervention: Local community groups and Franklin Memorial Hospital staff studied mortality and hospitalization rates for 40 years in this rural, low-income area of Farmington to seek intervention methods that could address cardiovascular diseases.
Results: A decline in cardiovascular-related mortality rates and improved prevention methods for hypertension, high cholesterol, and smoking.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To improve awareness of behavioral and mental health issues by students in rural, east central Mississippi.
Intervention: An intensive community mental health outreach program was implemented for students in rural Mississippi.
Results: As of 2018 and on a yearly basis, 6,000 7th and 8th grade students receive mental health education on a variety of topics which improves their ability to recognize mental health issues, high risk behaviors, and manage their own choices.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: Due to West Virginia's high ranking for its use of smokeless tobacco, prevention and cessation education efforts were needed.
Intervention: Development and implementation of the Spit It Out-West Virginia program.
Results: Supported by a 2008-2010 grant allowing the program to be delivered to hundreds of people, 5 workplaces became tobacco free. The program continues to be delivered across the state and reaches hundreds with its face-to-face presentations and thousands with its specific media prevention and cessation messages.

Rural Project Examples: Effective