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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Human services

Family Level Assessment and State of Home Visiting Outreach and Recruitment Study Report
Examines the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program to identify promising strategies for continued research as well as areas needing technical assistance, improvement, and evaluation. Reports on 266 programs to understand family capacity and need, how to frame outreach, promoting interest in home visits, collaborating with referral partners, and maintaining caseloads. Includes discussions specific to rural community contexts.
Author(s): Susan Zaid, Kim McCombs-Thornton, Leah Childress, et al.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Administration for Children and Families
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Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment, and Retention Strategies with Head Start-Eligible Families Experiencing Adversity: A Review of the Literature
Examines Head Start recruitment, enrollment, and retention strategies in relation to families experiencing adversity. Reviews 39 research studies published between 2011 and 2021 to identify adversities experienced by Head Start-eligible families, such as poverty, homelessness, involvement with foster care and child welfare systems, and substance abuse. Includes information about unique adversities experienced in rural locations.
Author(s): Cassandra Baxter, Nikki Aikens, Louisa Tarullo, et al.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: ACF Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Mathematica
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National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services Meeting Summary, April 11-13, 2022
Summarizes the 90th meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services (NACRHHS), which was held virtually. Presents an overview of the meeting's two areas of focus: 1) national, state, and tribal perspectives on access to emergency medical services (EMS) in rural America and 2) rural human services programs and emerging issues.
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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Parent Partners Provide Mentoring and Support in Rural Iowa
Features a statewide program in Iowa that pairs families whose children have been removed from the home with mentors with shared experience who have successfully navigated the state's Department of Human Services system. Describes the services that mentors provide: coaching, advocating, and connecting clients with community resources.
Author(s): Allee Mead
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Best Practices in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) Programs: 2016–2020 Final Report
A literature review of 105 research studies and papers from 2016-2020 related to employment and training programs for low-income individuals, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Employment and Training (E&T). Includes information about program changes, referral and retention strategies, work-based interventions, and more. Includes discussions about rural contexts throughout.
Additional links: Summary
Author(s): Anne Paprocki, Melissa Mack, Mahika Rangnekar
Date: 02/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Social Policy Research, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
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Aligning Systems to Advance Family and Community Well-Being: A Partnership Playbook for Community Action and Human Services Agencies
Provides an overview of how community action and human service agencies partnered, collaborated, and aligned services to address COVID-19 on a family-level and a systems-level. Presents field examples of partnerships in rural Maryland and rural Ohio with their successes and challenges when aligning services such as Head Start, housing assistance, and more. Discusses how rural models and strategies were employed in other geographic areas to mitigate COVID-19 issues in communities.
Date: 01/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: American Public Human Services Association, Community Action Partnership
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Sex Trafficking and Substance Use: Identifying High-Priority Needs Within the Criminal Justice System
Summarizes proceedings from a workshop that examines the overlap of sex trafficking and substance use disorders (SUDs) to provide victim-centered and trauma-informed services. Discusses policies and stigma surrounding SUDs and the barriers for marginalized victims who try to access services. Provides commentary on the increased needs of rural and nonmetropolitan communities.
Author(s): Lynn Langton, Michael G. Planty, Duren Banks, et al.
Date: 2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RAND Corporation
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Linking Administrative Data to Improve Understanding of Child Maltreatment Incidence and Related Risk and Protective Factors: A Feasibility Study
Examines the feasibility of linking data from local, state, and federal administrative agencies, such as child welfare, health, social service, education, and others, in order to produce new information on child maltreatment. Discusses rural-specific data concerns.
Author(s): Andrea Mraz Esposito, Claire Smither Wulsin, Leah Pranschke, Andrew Burwick, Rebekka Nickman
Date: 11/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Mathematica, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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Human Services Programs in Rural Contexts: Mixed Methods Analysis, Integration, and Triangulation Plan
Analysis plan outlining the research design and methodology of a study of human services delivery in rural areas funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). Covers stakeholder engagement, research questions and qualitative data collection, data analysis, and integration of findings.
Author(s): Dallas J. Elgin, Kelly McAleer, James Murdoch, et al.
Date: 09/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: 2M Research, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Urban Institute
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Addressing Health-Related Social Needs to Improve Rural Health: Ideas to Action
Identifies strategies for building community and regional systems of care to better address the social needs of patients and inform the design of community-level rural health transformation initiatives, pilots, or demonstrations in rural Maine. Examines existing literature and evidence from similar initiatives in Vermont, Idaho, and Oregon, and highlights key observations. Describes key components of a demonstration designed to build, implement, and test strategies for aligning health, social service, and other systems to address in order to advance whole-person care.
Author(s): Andrew F. Coburn, Deborah A. Deatrick
Date: 09/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Maine Rural Health Action Network, New England Rural Health Association
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