- FCC Waives Certain RHC Program Rules in Response to Hurricane Helene
- National Disaster Recovery Framework Public Comment Period
- USDA Offers Resources, Adds Flexibilities to Disaster Assistance Programs To Help Hurricane Helene-Impacted Farmers, Foresters and Communities
- Field Hospitals Set Up To Treat North Carolina Storm Victims Sit Mostly Empty
- More Restrooms Have Adult-Size Changing Tables To Help People With Disabilities
- VA Establishes Analytics Team to Improve Acute Care for Rural Veterans
- Local Radio Stations Become A Lifeline For Rural Appalachian Communities Cut Off By Hurricane Helene
- NIH Makes Inaugural Awards to Begin Building its CARE for Health™ Primary Care Research Network
- NIH CARE for Health Issues Awards to Inaugural Research Network Hubs
- CMS Announces Resources and Flexibilities to Assist With the Public Health Emergency in the States of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina
- CMS Announces Resources and Flexibilities to Assist With the Public Health Emergency in the States of Florida and Georgia
- UNM's Project Echo Model Shows Improvement in Diabetes Care for Rural New Mexicans
- Biden-Harris Administration Awards More Than $1.5 Billion in State and Tribal Opioid Response Grants to Advance the President's Unity Agenda for the Nation
- Kansas Is Covered in Farms but Isn't Growing Enough Local Produce for School Lunches
- Growing Divide: Rural Men Are Living Shorter, Less Healthy Lives Than Their Urban Counterparts
Tackling HPV Cancers
Tackling HPV Cancers. The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can prevent 30,000 Americans from getting cancer each year, but data from 2017 show that fewer than half of adolescents completed the HPV vaccination series. In rural communities, adolescents are less likely than their urban peers to be aware of the HPV vaccine and its importance in cancer prevention. Monday, March 4th is International HPV Awareness Day and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) asks you to join the #EndHPVCancers Twitter Chat on that day at 3:00 pm ET. And to help others understand the risks and ways to prevent HPV, share resources from the HHS HPV Promotional Toolkit, the National HPV Roundtable, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Data Show Growth in Rural Population
New Data Show Growth in Rural Population. The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports an uptick in population for the first time in nearly a decade. In 2016-17, the rural population increased by 0.1 percent, adding 33,000 people. This annual report from the ERS also includes geographic variations in population trends and a breakdown by race and ethnicity.
Brief: Disability in PA, 2013-2017
Approximately 1.73 million Pennsylvanians (13.7%) have at least one disability. This month we highlight trends in the population with disabilities in PA according to the 2013-2017 American Community Estimates. Key trends include:
- A higher percentage of females and older persons had disabilities
- Ambulatory, or movement-based, disabilities were the most common type
- Those with disabilities had lower educational attainment and earnings
Read more: https://pasdc.hbg.psu.edu/sdc/pasdc_files/researchbriefs/Feb_2019.pdf
Department of Human Services’ Report on Child Abuse Data Outlines Prevention Recommendations
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AHA Report on Challenges to Rural Access to Care
AHA Report on Challenges to Rural Access to Care. The American Hospital Association (AHA) report takes a comprehensive look at persistent challenges to health care in rural communities, an examination that includes hospital closures, the opioid crisis, social determinants of health, lack of behavioral health and workforce shortages. While it acknowledges a role and responsibility for better policy at every level, the report focuses on federal policies and investments in light of their nationwide impact and reach.
Advancing Tobacco Prevention and Control in Rural America
Advancing Tobacco Prevention and Control in Rural America. The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), in conjunction with the Maine Public Health Institute and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD), announced the release of a new report highlighting the significant toll tobacco has on rural communities. The report – which includes 15 recommendations for advancing rural tobacco control initiatives and suggestions for future research – explores rates and patterns of commercial tobacco use across rural, aspects of the rural context that may affect tobacco control efforts, and current rural tobacco control activities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking disproportionately affects the health of people with lower socioeconomic status, withpeople living in deprived, rural areas experiencing rates of lung cancer that are 18-20 percent higher than people living in urban areas.
White House Launches High Speed Broadband Initiative
White House Launches High Speed Broadband Initiative. On Wednesday, the White House announced a new effort to increase broadband access, particularly in rural areas where coverage and speeds are insufficient to accommodate needs for health care, education and commerce. With input from a range of federal agencies, including the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services and Interior as well the Federal Communications Commission, the American Broadband Initiative Milestones Report offers recommendations grouped into three categories: streamlining federal permitting processes to speed broadband deployment, leveraging federal assets to lower the cost of broadband build-outs, and maximizing the impact of federal funding. See the Funding Opportunities section below for announcements related to broadband access and telecommunications specific to rural areas.
USDA Launches High-Speed Broadband e-Connectivity Resource Guide
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2019 – Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched a new toolkit to help support the deployment of high-speed broadband e-Connectivity in rural communities.
“High-speed broadband e-Connectivity is becoming more and more essential to doing business, delivering health care, and, for schoolchildren, doing homework in rural communities,” Hazlett said. “This user-friendly tool will help rural customers find the many resources USDA has available to support the expansion and use of e-Connectivity in rural America.”
The e-Connectivity Toolkit (PDF, 4.3 MB) features 27 USDA programs that support broadband deployment. The easy-to-use resource is a simple guide that allows customers to identify their type of e-Connectivity project and locate resources the federal government offers for planning, equipment, construction, research and other e-Connectivity projects. Resources such as grants, loans and technical assistance are available from multiple Mission Areas at USDA, including Rural Development, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Forest Service.
The toolkit highlights examples of how e-Connectivity resources are being used to increase access to broadband services in rural communities. It is free and available to the public online, and can be easily printed for offline use.
USDA’s launch of the e-Connectivity Toolkit closely follows Secretary Sonny Perdue’s unveiling of the ReConnect Program, a pilot program authorized by the Consolidated Budget Act of 2018, to facilitate broadband deployment in rural areas that lack sufficient access to broadband.
In April 2017, President Donald J. Trump established the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity to identify legislative, regulatory and policy changes that could promote agriculture and prosperity in rural communities. In January 2018, Secretary Perdue presented the Task Force’s findings to President Trump. These findings included 31 recommendations to align the federal government with state, local and tribal governments to take advantage of opportunities that exist in rural America. Increasing investments in rural infrastructure is a key recommendation of the task force.
To view the report in its entirety, please view the Report to the President of the United States from the Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity (PDF, 5.4 MB). In addition, to view the categories of the recommendations, please view the Rural Prosperity infographic (PDF, 190 KB).
USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.
The Journal of Appalachian Health Launches Today
F. Douglas Scutchfield, Editor,
The Editorial Staff, and the Editorial and Advisory Boards
Invite you to participate in the launch of the
Journal of Appalachian Health.
The Journal of Appalachian Health is now open for both readers and authors. The journal is an online, open access, peer-reviewed journal with a mission of creating a healthy and thriving Appalachia. The journal, thanks to the support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will require no subscription fee or author publication fee.
The journal is particularly interested in receiving submissions that focus on Appalachian health inequities and social determinants of health. If you are interested in submitting articles for publication in the journal, the instructions for authors and further description of the journal are located at:
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/jah/
If you are interested in receiving your free copy of the journal, either go to the journal website https://uknowledge.uky.edu/jah/ to sign up for your free journal or send an email to
to be put on our journal mailing list.
We thank you and appreciate your interest and commitment to improving the health of the Appalachian Region.
Join the All of Us National Research Program
The All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to gather data over many years from one million or more people living in the United States, with the ultimate goal of accelerating research and improving health. Unlike research studies that are focused on a specific disease or population, All of Us will serve as a national research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide variety of health conditions. Researchers will use data from the program to learn more about how individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and biological makeup can influence health and disease. Participants may be able to learn more about their own health and contribute to an effort that may advance the health of generations to come.
Visit https://allofus.nih.gov/ to learn more on the nationwide effort!
Program Overview – Information about the program.
Scientific Opportunities – The large and diverse participant group will help our researchers explore questions and answers on a whole new level.
Participation – How the research cohort will work, participation goals and guidelines.
Program Partners – An overview of the various partners that have been assembled to deliver the program.
Protocol – A detailed look at the program’s plans for building a robust research resource of data from one million or more participants.
Who We Are – The NIH established independent advisory groups comprised of members who have deep and diverse expertise.
Program FAQ – Frequently asked questions about the All of Us Research Program.
Contact Us – How to contact the All of Us Research Program.