Rural Populations That Benefit from Services Integration
Certain rural groups could benefit from many different supports — for food, transportation, healthcare, and other services — yet face barriers to accessing services. By focusing on and addressing the needs of a target audience in a coordinated fashion, services integration can more efficiently and thoroughly help these groups to thrive.
Services integration programs often address health-related social needs, including high unemployment rates and lack of access to educational opportunities. The Rural Social Determinants of Health Toolkit discusses these factors, including food insecurity, unstable housing, and lack of basic healthcare.
Families with Low Incomes
Rates of poverty are higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. Families with low incomes are at risk for experiencing poor health outcomes due to reduced access to healthcare services, barriers to living a healthy lifestyle, and stress related to living with limited resources. Lack of resources may make it difficult for low-income families to overcome these challenges and obtain the services they need, such as public assistance programs to address food insecurity and healthcare services such as preventive screenings, oral healthcare, behavioral health, and family planning services.
Children Living in Poverty
Children living in poverty are at greater risk for negative outcomes such as poor academic achievement; dropping out of school; maltreatment and neglect; behavioral, social, and emotional problems; physical health problems; and developmental delays. Challenges to services integration for children living in poverty in rural communities include fragmentation among child and family service providers, a lack of consistent protocols for screening children, and limited early childhood behavioral health providers. To address these challenges, services integration programs for children may focus on services across the lifespan for children and their parents.
People Experiencing Homelessness
Many challenges affect the delivery of health and human services to people experiencing homelessness in rural communities, including:
- Lack of visibility. Given that rural communities have a lower population density, people experiencing homelessness may be less visible to health and human service providers.
- Lack of resources and infrastructure. Rural communities may lack the necessary infrastructure to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness. For example, compared to urban areas, rural communities have fewer specialized services, shelters, and trained staff to address homelessness. Limited public transportation, job opportunities, and affordable housing options are additional barriers for rural residents experiencing homelessness.
- Lack of access. People who are experiencing homelessness in rural communities may not be able to access health and human services, particularly if they must travel long distances to reach these services.
- Need for family-focused services. Families with children were more likely to be homeless without shelter in mostly rural areas than urban ones. Therefore, services integration programs must address the needs of children and adults.
Rural Island Communities
Rural residents living in island communities that are only accessible via air and water face challenges in accessing health and human services. These communities are geographically isolated, and may need to allocate significant resources to facilitating "off-island" care for residents when local services are not available. Some island communities have very few healthcare providers and services, and lack specialty services. These rural communities may also lack the necessary workforce and equipment to implement quality improvement interventions for services integration. In addition, limited resources may lead to a lack of care coordination and continuity of care. These challenges can be exacerbated by natural disasters.
Resources to Learn More
Rural
Homelessness
Website
Provides resources to assist rural communities when developing strategies to address homelessness.
Organization(s): U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Strengthening
Systems for Ending Rural Homelessness: Promising Practices and Considerations
Document
Discusses challenges and strategies to address rural homelessness with topics on housing instability,
strengthening leadership and capacity, engaging partners, coordinating services, and developing outreach and
engagement methods to identify people experiencing homelessness.
Organization(s): United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Date: 6/2018
USDA Rural Poverty
& Well-Being
Website
Provides an overview on metro/nonmetro poverty rates in the United States. Includes an analysis of poverty data
in a geographic and demographic context, and offers summaries of county level and state level rural/urban
poverty data.
Organization(s): United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service