The Administration and non-Federal organizations are actively involved in on-going and new programs to help provide healthcare to rural communities. For example, the “Rural Integration Models for Parents and Children in Thrive (RuralIMPACT) a successful demonstration project launched last year, is continuing to help communities.
The RuralIMPACT demonstration project is led by HHS www.hhs.gov in collaboration with USDA www.usda.gov, the Department of Labor www.dol.gov, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) www.nationalservice.gov, Appalachian Regional Commission www.arc.gov, Delta Regional Authority http://dra.gov, Anne E. Casey Foundation www.awcf.org, W.K. Kellogg Foundation www.wkkf.org, other philanthropic partners, plus ten local and tribal communities.
The project helps communities adopt a two generation approach to addressing the needs of both vulnerable children and their parents in rural areas. The goal is to increase employment and education for the parents and improve the health and well-being of their children and families.
In October, USDA and the CNCS announced that AmeriCorps VISTA members will be placed in all ten Rural IMPACT communities for a second year.
In another move, CNCS is going to provide up to 19 AmeriCorps program development grants to States and Governor Service Commissions. This funding will be used to address the growing opioid crisis in this country that will include rural areas in affected states. Last year, CNCS invested $220 million in programs to help rural communities address the challenges related to the use of opioids.
HRSA www.hrsa.gov has been actively awarding funds to support rural America. In August 2016, HRSA announced that more than $16 million has been awarded to improve access to quality healthcare in rural communities.
The four grant programs that received funds are the “Telehealth Network Grant Program”, “Rural Health Research Centers”, “Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Grants”, and the “Flex Rural Veterans Health Access Program”.
In addition, HRSA has released several Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) through their Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). The first FOA “Rural Policy Analysis Program” focuses on analyzing key policy issues affecting rural communities to identify trends and challenges.
The second FOA “Rural Health Research Dissemination Cooperative Agreement” seeks applications to help the program disseminate and market rural health research funded by FORHP.
Information under the Cooperative Agreement will go to decision-makers and rural stakeholders at national, state, and community levels. This is to be achieved by using websites, presenting speeches at meetings, setting up exhibits at rural conferences, and using social media effectively to get the word out to rural areas.
The third FOA “Rural Health Network Development Program” wants to see integrated rural healthcare networks developed while working with other parties to target and meet the needs of rural communities.
This is to be achieved by improving the quality of essential healthcare services and working together to strengthen the rural healthcare system as a whole. For more information on the grant funding announcements, go to FORHP www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/index.html and click on funding opportunities.
Also, to help provide healthcare in rural areas to more veterans, the Veterans Administration’s Office of Rural Health www.ruralhealth.va.gov is in the process of awarding $215 million in grants for FY 2017 to help 138 VA Medical Centers in rural communities. This funding will help to increase access to healthcare services for approximately 570,000 rural veterans and about 800 rural providers and healthcare staff.