Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Culture and cultural competency

Exploring Strategies to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities
Identifies the strengths and assets of rural communities, key partners, change agents, and opportunities to leverage assets to improve rural health and equity through a national forum of over 400 national and regional cross-sector stakeholders. Findings were organized into 4 categories: individual assets, organizational assets, community assets, and cultural assets. Includes discussion on challenges and opportunities for action for each asset category.
Additional links: Leveraging Culture and History to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities, Recommendations for Philanthropies and Government Agencies to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities, Supporting Change Agents Across Sectors to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities
Author(s): Michael Meit
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis
view details
Navajo Wellness Model: Keeping the Cultural Teachings Alive to Improve Health
Describes a wellness model curriculum developed by the Navajo Area Indian Health Service along with cultural experts and traditional healers to increase health literacy and self-management in healthcare and public health settings. The curriculum uses traditional Navajo methods of teaching healthy behaviors and is designed to improve the knowledge and understanding of healthcare and public health providers on Navajo values about health within the family, community, and environment.
Author(s): Marie Nelson
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
view details
Reclaiming Indigenous Food Relationships: Improving Health with Culture
Presents a guide to a culturally competent framework for addressing American Indian and Alaska Native healthy food production. Discusses the ways Native communities can promote healthy practices by using the traditional medicine wheel as a model.
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: American Indian Cancer Foundation
view details
Examining Protective and Buffering Associations Between Sociocultural Factors and Adverse Childhood Experiences among American Indian Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: A Quantitative, Community-based Participatory Research Approach
Presents a study on the possible correlations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in American Indians and Alaska Natives. Breaks down data by age, gender, and social support, among other factors.
Author(s): Teresa N Brockie, Jessica H L Elm, Melissa L Walls
Citation: BMJ Open, 8(9)
Date: 2018
Type: Document
view details
Suicide Surveillance Strategies for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Features a report on suicide data collection strategies for American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Presents case studies from different tribal communities and supporting resources for each strategy discussed.
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Suicide Prevention Resource Center
view details
Benefits for African American and White Low-Income 7–10-year-old Children and Their Parents Taught Together in a Community-Based Weight Management Program in the Rural Southeastern United States
Examines if African American and White children and adults from two rural North Carolina counties benefited equally from a community-based weight management intervention. Covers statistics by demographic characteristics, race and marital status, employment, occupation, income, and more.
Author(s): Diane C. Berry, Robert G. McMurray, Todd A. Schwartz, Reuben Adatorwovor
Citation: BMC Public Health, 18, 1107
Date: 2018
Type: Document
view details
Culture and Self-Determination Provide Strength to Heal
Describes how the Seneca Nation of Indians has incorporated its culture into programs and community initiatives. Examples include school and adult Seneca language immersion programs, restoring indigenous plants, cultivating native animals, and the Seneca Strong program to address substance abuse by incorporating prevention and sobriety programming into traditional rites of passage, outdoor skills camps, and powwows. The Seneca Nation of Indians (New York) received the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
view details
Live Healthy, Live Well, 'Live Algoma'
An overview of a rural community (Algoma, Wisconsin) coming together to set goals and work on projects focused on health and wellness. Projects included modifying an old bank to develop an alternative school called Pathfinder, building the Algoma Community Wellness Center, and collaborating with local industries and schools to create new learning opportunities for students. Algoma is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
view details
A Community Holding Hands to Bridge its Divide
Describes the actions taken and programs developed by the residents of Garrett County, Maryland, in response to the economic, cultural, and health challenges they face. Working together, the Garrett County residents have been able to provide scholarships to every high school graduate to attend community college for free, develop 700 affordable, low-income, mixed-income, and workforce housing units, and more. Garrett County is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
view details
A 'Scrappy' Push for Health: 'Our Best Asset Is Our People'
Provides an overview of health challenges in Allen County, Kansas, and actions that communities in the area have taken to address them, including fundraising for a local hospital, building bike and walking trails, establishing job training programs, advocating for improved access to healthy food, and more. Allen County is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
view details