Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Community Supports for Rural Aging in Place and Independent Living – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Community Supports for Rural Aging in Place and Independent Living.

Rural Disability Research and Practice Summit
Recordings and presentation slides from the January 2023 Rural Disability Research and Practice Summit. Covers rural issues related to personal assistance services and digital access. Includes perspectives from rural consumers, workers, and service providers.
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities
view details
Unmet Needs for Help with Mobility Limitations among Older Adults Aging in Place: The Role of Rurality
Examines unmet mobility needs related to issues of access and appropriate housing in elderly populations. Analyzes data from 3,343 respondents of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) by age, gender, race, education, income, and housing status/characteristics. Includes differences in health characteristics, fall history, and unmet needs with data broken down by rural versus urban location.
Author(s): Carrie Henning-Smith, Megan Lahr, John Mulcahy, Hannah MacDougall
Citation: Journal of Aging and Health, 35(9)
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
view details
Strengthening the Direct Service Workforce in Rural Areas
Summarizes the challenges of the direct service workforce in rural areas including strategies that rural stakeholders can use to provide high-quality, long-term care services and supports. Discusses the challenges of recruiting and retaining direct-care workers in rural areas.
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
view details
Addressing the Rising Mental Health Needs of an Aging Population: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summary of a May 2023 workshop discussing mental health care for older adults, including challenges and strategies for meeting mental health needs. Discusses disparities, social determinants of health, access, workforce, interventions and support, rural challenges, and more.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Health Care Services
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
2023 Chartbook: More Older Adults, More Complex Needs: Trends and New Directions from the National Survey of Area Agencies on Aging
A chartbook offering data from the 2022 National Survey of Area Agencies on Aging. Rural topics discussed include transportation grants, social engagement, and areas served by Area Agencies on Aging (AAA). Also discusses AAAs services, housing, workforce and staffing, COVID-19, and more.
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Miami University, Scripps Gerontology Center, USAging
view details
America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2023
Provides a national and state-by-state overview of population health for older adults across 52 measures using data from 22 unique data sources. Covers social and economic factors, physical environment, clinical care, behaviors, and health outcomes. Highlights health disparities, including rural-urban disparities, across five categories of health. Includes state-by-state summaries and county-level maps for risk of social isolation by state.
Additional links: County-Level Maps for Risk of Social Isolation
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: United Health Foundation
view details
Developing a Local MPA to Address the Needs of Older & Disabled Adults in Rural Communities
Recording of a December 2022 webinar highlighting three coalitions in California that are developing local Master Plans for Aging (MPAs) to address the challenges of aging in rural communities. Discusses the steps the coalitions are taking to develop their MPAs, including forming advisory committees, gathering community input, identifying potential action items, planning for implementation and sustainability, and more. Transcript available by clicking the dots above the video description, then selecting Show transcript.
Date: 12/2022
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: California Collaborative for Long Term Services and Supports
view details
Who Will Care for Rural Older Adults? Measuring the Direct Care Workforce in Rural Areas
Policy brief examining existing disparities in the supply of home health aides and nursing assistants in rural areas compared to urban areas. Features statistics on the ratio of home health aides and nursing assistants relative to the population of adults age 65 and above, with breakdowns by urban and rural areas and by census region.
Author(s): Janette Dill, Carrie Henning-Smith, Rongxuan Zhu, Elizabeth Vomacka
Date: 11/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
view details
Patterns of Health Care Use among Rural-Urban Medicare Beneficiaries Age 85 and Older, 2010-2017
Policy brief examining how rural and urban Medicare beneficiaries age 85+ differ in terms of their socioeconomic and health characteristics that may inform healthcare use. Features statistics on trends in healthcare use, including inpatient and emergency department care, outpatient and prescription services, specialists and dentists, and home health and durable medical equipment, with breakdowns by urban and rural location.
Author(s): Yvonne Jonk, Heidi O'Connor, Amanda Burgess, Carly Milkowski
Date: 11/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
view details
Rural Health Research Recap: Aging in Place
Summarizes recent research from Rural Health Research Centers examining aging in place as it relates to social engagement, living alone, long-term care preferences, and nursing home availability. Features statistics from 2013-2017 on share of population ages 65+ and 85+ and share of this population living alone, with breakdowns by urban or rural county type, and percent of counties with nursing homes in 2019, with breakdowns by rural, micropolitan, and metropolitan location.
Author(s): Per Ostmo, Jessica Rosencrans
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Research Gateway
view details

Additional resources are available related to this guide. See the full list of resources by topic for:


Last Updated: 1/26/2024