Topics: Aging and aging-related services

For more information and resources, see the Community Supports for Rural Aging in Place and Independent Living topic guide.

Telehealth Brings Important Services to Rural Long-Term Care Facilities

A skilled nursing facility in New Hampshire and national experts share the benefits telehealth services can bring to the residents and staff of rural long-term care facilities as well as the challenges some facilities face in providing these services.

“Swing bed” is that oft-heard phrase describing not a physical hospital bed, but post-acute care for the rural patient who is well enough to leave the acute care hospital but not well enough to be safe at home. In this 2-part story, experts and hospital administrators review the swing bed program’s historical implementation and provide stories and examples of the value this over 40-year-old healthcare delivery and reimbursement model brings to patients, to the hospitals providing their care, and ultimately to rural communities.

Bringing focus to rural housing quality as a social determinant of health, a healthcare organization joins a service organization and housing experts to explain housing’s impact on health and how these organizations can work together to improve rural population health.

Barbara Leonard and Ruta Kadonoff of the Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) discuss how their foundation provided unrestricted COVID-19 grants and open competitive grants and partnered with other philanthropies pooling together COVID-19 response funds.

Kim Barber Tieman, program director for health and human services for the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, shares how her foundation set up a COVID-19 grant capture team and funded grant writers to help organizations navigate and apply for federal funding opportunities. In addition, her foundation worked with organizations and funded three mobile COVID testing units to better reach communities of color.

Study after study underscores transportation as a major barrier to rural healthcare access. With the support of federal funding, a project director shares how Rides to Health and Wealth is emerging as a solution in eastern Missouri — despite COVID-19.

Tribal communities have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Serving the four federally recognized tribes in Maine, Wabanaki Public Health is taking a stand to address these disparities. A recipient of the Rural Tribal COVID Response (RTCR) grant, they have implemented a number of programs to meet the needs of their communities, providing support by reinforcing cultural connection even in the most difficult of times.

It is the most costly of chronic medical conditions. Described by some as “hidden” conditions, experts talk about the complex needs of rural Americans with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias and their caregivers.

CAPABLE is a national model that connects low-income seniors with an occupational therapist, registered nurse, and home repair services. Program coordinators from Hawaii and Maine share their successes and the challenges of helping rural residents age safely in place.