- Call for Experts: Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence
- Bill to Expand Definition of 'Village' Qualifying for Water Funds Passes Alaska House
- Child Care Workers Caught in Middle of Michigan's Broken Child Care System
- Few Options Available for Substance Abuse Treatment in the Big Bend
- Ways and Means Members Put Forth Solutions to Strengthen Telehealth Access and Improve Health Care for Rural Communities
- In Rural Texas, ERs Are Facing a Growing Mental Health Crisis
- Sage Memorial Hospital in Navajo Nation Constructs New Facility to Improve Health Care
- How the State, Tribes and Federal Government Are Working to Curb SD's Syphilis Epidemic
- Rural Children Struggle to Access Hospital Services, Say Researchers
- Outlining the Intersection between Health Care and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People
- A Pilot Program in Rural Vermont Hopes to Build a Blueprint for Substance Abuse Recovery
- Farmers Don't Do Mental Health
- RPHARM Program Fulfills Need for Rural Pharmacists
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Critical More Than $1.5 Billion State and Tribal Opioid Response Funding Opportunities
- USDA Rural Development Seeks Input to Improve Access to Grants and Help More Communities Thrive
United States Department of Agriculture Releases Community Facilities Guidebook for Loan Applicants
Community Facilities Guidebook for Applicants
USDA Rural Development released a new guidebook to help applicants apply for a Community Facilities (CF) Direct Loan Program. This guide outlines the application process, financial feasibility requirements, construction and closing of an essential community facility for small towns and rural areas.
Pennsylvania Partnership for Children: State of the Child 2019
Do you know how your county compares to others in Pennsylvania when it comes to child welfare, health insurance coverage, educational opportunities and other important measures of child well-being?
To help you get answers, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children has created county-based “State of the Child” profiles that provide a snapshot of each county’s data, alongside statewide data and information on counties with similar geographic profiles. For each county, you can find:
- Child population and poverty statistics
- Information on how many children are uninsured, and how many benefit from coverage through Medicaid or Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- Data on how many children benefit from subsidized child care and publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs
- The number of children in foster care or receiving other child welfare services
- Academic performance data for school districts, charter schools and cyber charter schools
Read here for more: https://www.papartnerships.org/report/state-of-the-child-2019/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=69195afe-ea78-44d8-a0c9-49880cec2615
What’s the bare-minimum income a Pennsylvania household of four needs to survive? Try nearly $60,000 a year.
To survive in Pennsylvania, a family of four needs to make $59,340 a year — a hard-to-fathom, sticker-shock number that shows how expensive life has become.
That’s the finding of a recently released report by Harrisburg-based United Way of Pennsylvania.
Suicide Rates Still Rising, Especially in Rural
Suicide Rates Still Rising, Especially in Rural. On Friday, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released a new report on county-level suicide rates, specifically comparing trends and contributing factors that varied between urban and rural areas. The study included all individuals aged 25 to 64 years who died by suicide between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2016. Results showed that 77 percent of the decedents were male and that suicide rates were higher and increased more rapidly in rural than in large metropolitan counties.
Read the study here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2749451
Comments Requested: PTAC Proposal on Remote Specialist Care
Comments Requested: PTAC Proposal on Remote Specialist Care – October 1. ThePhysician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) requests public comment on a proposal for a new payment model that would create either Regional Referral Centers (RRCs) or a single National Referral Center (NRC) to provide remote specialists and experts for most health issues. The specialists would support field providers such as visiting nurses, community providers, PCPs, or hospital doctors and would serve any geographic location. Comments can be emailed to PTAC@hhs.gov with the subject line “Public Comment – [name of document].”
Read the document here:
https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/261881/ProposalSobel.pdf
Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health to Host Rural Human Trafficking Summit on October 29
Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health to Host Rural Human Trafficking Summit on October 29
University Park, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health (PORH) will hold the first Pennsylvania Rural Human Trafficking Summit on October 29, 2019 at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center in State College, PA.
The summit will focus on national and state efforts to address human trafficking, the law enforcement response to trafficking, and community- and health care facility-based strategies and education to address trafficking.
According to the Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH), approximately 40.3 million modern slaves are in service worldwide, with approximately 25 million being forced into labor and sex trafficking. It is estimated that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide.
Human trafficking is not just a global issue, but a local issue. Rural America, and rural Pennsylvania, are not immune to trafficking. According to data from the NHTH, 275 reported cases of human trafficking were reported in 2018 in Pennsylvania, ranking the state 11th in the nation for human trafficking.
Isolation, geography, and transportation routes that facilitate human trafficking in rural areas allow human trafficking to go undetected. The lack of economic opportunities in many rural areas also make individuals more vulnerable to trafficking. Education, awareness, and an understanding of local, state, and federal resources are essential to identifying potential human trafficked individuals and assisting them in getting the help they need.
The October summit will feature a “surthriver,” a victim of human trafficking who was able to escape this modern day slavery. She will share her compelling journey into and through human trafficking and how she survived—and thrived. She now directs a human trafficking recovery program in northeastern Pennsylvania to aid others to escape the bonds of trafficking.
Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality. Traffickers might use violence, manipulation or false promises of well-paying jobs or romantic relationships to lure victims into trafficking.
Trauma caused by traffickers can be so great that many may not identify themselves as victims or ask for help, even in highly public settings. Language barriers, stigma, fear of their traffickers, and/or fear of law enforcement frequently keep victims from seeking help, making human trafficking a hidden crime.
National estimates indicate that approximately 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women, and health care providers are often the first professionals to have contact with trafficked women and girls. Nearly 50 percent of trafficked individuals saw a health care professional during their exploitation, putting health care providers and facilities on the front lines of identifying and potentially stopping human trafficking.
The summit is sponsored by PORH; the Region III Office of the Health Resources and Services Administration; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Eastcentral and Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center; the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, and the Governors Office of Homeland Security.
Registration and additional conference information can be found on the Rural Human Trafficking Summit website at cvent.com/d/z6qs99.
PORH formed in 1991 as a joint partnership between the federal government, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Penn State. The office is one of 50 state offices of rural health in the nation funded under a program administered by FORHP and is charged with being a source of coordination, technical assistance, networking, and partnership development.
PORH provides expertise in the areas of rural health, agricultural health and safety, and community and economic development. PORH is administratively housed in the Department of Health Policy and Administration in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State University Park.
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Editors: For more information, contact Terri Klinefelter, outreach coordinator, Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, at 814-863-8214 or tjc136@psu.edu.
Nursing Podcast Series
Season One of “At the Core of Care”
The first season of the At the Core of Care podcast series is available NOW. At the Core of Care highlights the consumer experience of patients, families, and communities and the creative efforts of nurses and other partners to better meet their health and healthcare needs through diversity, leadership, and practice innovation. The stories are based in Pennsylvania but tell a much bigger story about important trends shaping health and health care across America.
We’ve made all the episodes in our first season available immediately. Subscribe, binge, and rate today!
Season One:
Episode 1: Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners
Episode 2: Breastfeeding Support at the Philadelphia Nurse-Family Partnership
Episode 3: The Fight for Full Practice Authority in Pennsylvania
Episode 4: Pediatric Home Care for Medically Complex Children
Funding for this project is provided by AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action Innovations Fund.
Technical Assistance For Hospitals Applying to the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model
Technical Assistance for Hospitals Applying to the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model—a CMMI-Sponsored Rural Hospital Global Budget Model – Rural hospitals, interested in participating in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, participated in a rapid cycle process to develop plans to transition from being volume-oriented to focusing on community health, facilitated by a global budget. This brief summarizes Rural Health Value’s process to facilitate hospital development of a transition plan for those considering developing or participating in a global budget or other transformation models for rural hospitals.
See document here.
Good Oral Health a Positive Part of the Ageing Process
The world’s population is ageing, and experts predict that by 2050, 25% of the world’s population – 2 billion people – will be over 60 years old. A fifth of these – 400 million – will be over 80 years old. Epidemiological studies show that older persons are particularly affected by poor oral health, with negative consequences on their general health. Oral conditions such as dental caries, periodontal disease, tooth loss, dry mouth or oral cancer affect their chewing function and nutritional intake, as well as their ability to interact socially.
Continue reading “Good Oral Health a Positive Part of the Ageing Process”
Trauma Informed Care in Dentistry
The Virginia Health Care Foundation released “Trauma Informed Care in Dentistry: Why It Matters & How To Get Started” for providers. The document discusses the definition and effects of trauma, the correlation with trauma in dentistry, how to address trauma in patients, and developing a trauma informed culture.