This website is being reviewed for updates. Some information is offline. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

West Virginia Models and Innovations

These stories feature model programs and successful rural projects that can serve as a source of ideas. Some of the projects or programs may no longer be active. Read about the criteria and evidence-base for programs included.

Evidence-Based Examples

Updated/reviewed January 2023

  • Need: An approach to support sustained, quality delivery of evidence-based programs for youth and families in rural communities.
  • Intervention: PROSPER, a program delivery system, guides communities in implementing evidence-based programs that build youth competencies, improve family functioning, and prevent risky behaviors, particularly substance use.
  • Results: Youth in PROSPER communities reported delayed initiation of a variety of substances, lower levels of other behavioral problems, and improvements in family functioning and other life skills.

Effective Examples

Updated/reviewed March 2025

  • 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.

Updated/reviewed August 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 January 2024

  • Need: More evidenced-based chronic lower respiratory disease management options for rural Appalachia patients, where lung disease rates are among the highest in the country.
  • Intervention: Implementation of outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation programs in 2 Federally Qualified Health Centers and a Critical Access Hospital in West Virginia.
  • Results: Improved health outcomes for patients with chronic lower respiratory disease, including those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed September 2023

  • Need: A cost-effective approach to help rural patients with hypertension learn to manage their condition.
  • Intervention: Community volunteers trained as health coaches provided an 8-session hypertension management training program to hypertension patients older than 60, with an optional supplemental 8 sessions focused on nutrition and physical activity.
  • Results: Just 16 weeks after the program, participants had improved systolic blood pressure, weight, and fasting glucose, greater knowledge of hypertension, and improved self-reported behaviors.

Other Project Examples

Added December 2024

  • Need: To train the next generation of psychiatrists in a rural context, while providing psychiatric care to an underserved region of West Virginia.
  • Intervention: A new rural psychiatry residency program at Marshall University, in which residents split their time between the rural town of Point Pleasant and the larger city of Huntington.
  • Results: The program welcomed its first class of residents in July 2024.

Updated/reviewed August 2024

  • Need: To help children whose family members are struggling with substance misuse.
  • Intervention: A year-round program provides mentoring as well as substance use prevention education.
  • Results: In 2023, Camp Mariposa served a total of 113 youth in its four rural locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. In a study, 92% of participants reported no use of any substance to get high.
funded by the Health Resources Services Administration

Updated/reviewed September 2020

  • Need: Coordinated approach to healthcare delivery in central and southern West Virginia.
  • Intervention: Creation of a nonprofit organization that focused on quality and collaboration.
  • Results: With an ability to provide services that meet the evolving needs of patients, providers, and communities, the organization provides unique services, such as a credentialing service and web-based data sharing care management tool.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed March 2020

  • Need: Comprehensive cancer services for residents of an 8-county, 3-state area in Appalachia.
  • Intervention: Using a Cancer Patient Navigation Tool Kit, a Maryland acute care facility led a multidisciplinary collaboration that provided the area's patients with expanded cancer treatment services.
  • Results: In addition to several new cancer-related programs, expanded services are now available for cancer patients, families, and cancer survivors.
Last Reviewed: 4/29/2024