Since 2011, the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) has set aside the third Thursday of November to celebrate the “Power of Rural” on National Rural Health Day. This year, National Rural Health Day takes place on November 21.
According to NOSORH’s Key Messages & Data Points, nearly 61 million people (19.7%) in the United States and 86% of the country’s land is considered rural.
In rural communities, unique situations occur for many residents that affect their overall health such as food insecurity and a shortage of qualified health care providers.
Since rural areas are unique, creativity is a must when it comes to healthcare and addressing social determinant of health (SDOH) needs, such as mobile health units and community health fairs where resource information is taken directly to where the residents live or congregate in large numbers.
Through the Community Care HUB, an initiative of Center for Population Health (CPH), Community Health Workers (CHWs) are working directly in rural communities in Cambria and Somerset counties to further rural health outcomes.
By utilizing the Pathways Community HUB model, the HUB aims to impact health outcomes by addressing risk factors associated with poor health outcomes. CHWs connect at-risk individuals to needed services by meeting with them monthly and face-to-face, preferably in their homes, to guide them through one of 21 pathways designed to address their individual needs.
Another way the CPH is working to get information directly into the hands of those who may need it is by launching the Health Minister Initiative.
A Health Minister is an individual designated by the church leader as someone who will provide health and human services information to the congregation. Working directly with CPH, the Health Minister will listen to parishioner feedback to identify health information they’d like to learn more about.
The Health Minister will present the resource information to the congregation monthly in whichever way it works best for them.
By providing vetted health information to church congregations, CPH will be getting valuable health and resource information into rural areas and to people of all ages.
Several CPH staff members celebrated National Rural Health Day by attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s 3rd Annual Pennsylvania Mountains Rural Health Conference. The group had the opportunity to listen to a variety of speakers who presented on a variety of rural health topics and issues.
For more information about National Rural Health Day can be found at PowerofRural.org.
If your church is interested in learning more about the Health Minister Initiative, please contact CPH Communications Coordinator Allie Byers at abyers@centerforpophealth.org.