Future of Rural Health
The many research centers (Center for Rural and Northern Health Research: Laurentian University, the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota, RUPRI Center to name a few) and the many rural health advocacy groups (National Rural Health Association, National Organization of State offices of Rural Health, National Rural Health Alliance, to name a few) working hard on rural health issues have not been around for very long in comparison to other research centers. Health promotion initiatives are currently being undertaken in many rural areas with more and more emphasis placed on the participation of rural individuals to better improve specific programs. Only time will tell if any real changes shall occur, but for the time being we need to concentrate on implementing divers programs and initiatives in order to reduce the gap between rural and urban populations. In Canada, many provinces have started to decentralize primary care and now have a more regional approach to health care. Recently, in Ontario, Canada, Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN) have been created in order to address regional issues used to decentralization planning and decision making. The Northeastern and Northwestern LHIN’s have been established with the hopes of being better able to suit the needs of the many Ontarians living in rural, northern and remote areas which have to face many different problems than their urban counterparts.
An over (US) $ 50 million dollar pilot project has been approved in order to improve public health in rural areas in China. According to the Ministry of Health, the program is designed to seek ways for the improvement of rural health services and sustained improvement of health level of local people. This is a step in the right direction, and will hopefully present rural China with real changes. More importantly, China is also planning to introduce a national health care system. In Australia, much progress has been made in the past decade. The most important aspect is that recognition and acceptance of the need for a distinctive approach which addresses the diversity of rural and remote Australia has been achieved. Other achievements have been made in rural infrastructure, networking and collaboration, mew models of service delivery and in research. The 1990s have been the best of times and the worst of times in rural health delivery in the United States. They have been the best of times because the influence of rural health advocates on policy development has never been stronger. The community of analysts and advocates has more breadth and depth than ever before. They have been the worst of times, because a certain emphasis has been placed on cost containment during the past 15 years which has resulted in actions that threaten the financial viability of rural providers.
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