Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity News and Events

Upcoming events

National Rural Health Day, November 21, 2024

A message from Sally Kraft, MD, MPH, Population Health Officer, Dartmouth Health

Happy Rural Health Day,

Rural populations are older, sicker, and die younger than urban counterparts. Rural populations have higher rates of chronic disease and higher rates of risks for chronic disease (smoking, obesity). Rural populations have greater difficulty accessing healthcare services. But we believe that the nature of rural living provides an anti-dote to these trends.

The increasing disparities between rural and urban populations is particularly important for our Northern New England communities. Across the US, rural populations have a 20% higher mortality rate compared to urban populations and that gap tripled between 1999-2019 (Cross S, Califf R, Warraich H. JAMA June 8, 2021). Nationally, 20% of the population lives in rural areas, but in the Northern New England states of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, 54% of the population is rural (2020 Decennial Census). Furthermore, Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire are home to some of the oldest populations in our country, and high care needs increase with age. These factors contribute to the vulnerability of our Northern New England communities.

Despite these challenges, rural communities have strengths that can change the trajectory of the past decades and point the way for solutions to healthcare disparities. In a small community, people know each other. There is a sense of responsibility to care for each other. Neighbors help neighbors.

This shared responsibility was highlighted during the pandemic. In the Upper Valley, community organizations resurrected a committee, Upper Valley Strong, which had been created in years past when confronted with threats such as Hurricane Irene. Dartmouth Health joined the Upper Valley Strong coalition to support communities immediately after the state of emergency was declared in March 2020. The history of working together, being neighbors and colleagues, and shared responsibility helped to create a robust system of support for health and social needs in the early months of the pandemic (Yang Y, et al. Stronger Together: A Successful Model of Health system-Community Collective Action During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Progress in Community Health Partnership 2023).

Fueled by the experience of Upper Valley Strong came the idea of creating a system to bring people together that would endure after the pandemic. There was a growing realization of the relationship between community conditions and health outcomes, between health and economic prosperity, and the need to create communities where everyone can be as healthy as possible. In 2022, the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity (CARHE) was designed by community members, researchers, educators and clinicians working together to focus on developing partnerships that would improve health for all.

On Rural Health Day, we celebrate the accomplishments of our partners at CARHE.

  • Implementing new programs to get healthy food to rural communities
  • Enhancing early childhood programming in rural libraries
  • Educating children and their families about the health impacts of climate change
  • Forming a community coalition to support the needs of our neighbors
  • Laying the foundation for a recovery community organization in an underserved area
  • Helping to bring oral health services to people in rural areas
  • Bringing people together to learn about political drivers of health

These recent achievements are just a fraction of the whole list of actions that are teaching us how we can learn from each other and work together to make sure that people in rural areas have the chance to live healthy lives by learning and acting together in our rural communities.

Sally Kraft, MD, MPH
Population Health Officer, Dartmouth Health

Past events

October 2024

Rural Health Equity Storytelling Training

CARHE partnered with Murphy Barney to host storytelling training in October 2024. These virtual trainings were designed for care workers who serve rural communities—including providers and clinical staff, researchers, educators, and human service providers—to help them engage with the process of telling the story of the important work they do.

We believe your stories can help us move toward better care for everyone. We recognize the crucial role you play day in and day out in the lives of the people you serve. Data alone can't illustrate the depth of your work and impact.

Read the event report (PDF) to learn more about this training and the stories we hope to tell.

Rural Health Equity Policy Forum

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

With NH Congressional District 2 candidates Colin Van Ostern and Maggie Goodlander

Recognizing that political drivers of health, including federal legislative activity, shape health outcomes and access to healthcare, the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity and the Dartmouth Health Office of Government Relations are partnering to cohost the Rural Health Equity Policy Forum. 

You are invited to hear from candidates running for the NH Congressional District 2 seat. This seat has been held by Congresswoman Annie Kuster for the last decade, but she announced her retirement from Congress in late March. Two candidates, Maggie Goodlander and Colin Van Ostern, will join us for this policy forum.
 
At the Forum, community members—including clinicians, researchers, students, nonprofit leaders, and more—will ask health equity centered questions of the candidates with rich context and background information. This Forum will provide an opportunity for participating candidates to learn about rural challenges and share their political strategies to tackle health disparities.

Genuine Community Engagement: Recognizing and Maximizing the Impact of Consumer and Community Member Experience to Advance Health Equity

November 7, 2023

CARHE hosted this virtual workshop, where over 50 people representing various community-based organizations and health system partners explored ways to nurture community engagement in all levels of governance, care, and leadership for positive community change.

The workshop learning objectives were:

  • Participants will identify barriers to genuine consumer/community engagement.
  • Participants will identify a variety of models for consumer/community engagement.
  • Participants will consider ways that consumer/community engagement can be meaningfully included within their own work.

Community engagement workshop resources

Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity Fall Gathering: Learning and Acting Together in our Communities

When: Monday, October 30, 2023, 8:30 am to 1 pm
Where: Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, Vermont

Keynote address by Dr. Yvonne Goldsberry, MPH, PhD
President, The Endowment for Health

The Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity Fall Gathering will create a space for members from community services, health care delivery, research, and education to bring about transformational change by working together to eliminate unfair conditions and helping people in our rural New England communities to be as healthy as possible.

Participants will enhance their understanding of health equity challenges and solutions in our region, network with likeminded people, and come away better equipped to engage in partnerships for health equity in our communities.

Read a summary of the event (PDF).

Working Toward Health Equity for the LGBTQ+ Community

September 18, 2023

Working Toward Health Equity for the LGBTQ+ Community panelists sitting at a table

This event featured a panel conversation about obstacles to health equity faced by the LGBTQ+ community and the way forward. The conversation was moderated by Murphy Barney of StoryCorps and included representatives from community service organizations, health care, and the public sector. In addition to the speakers, several groups and organizations were present to share information about services and resources for LGBTQ+ community members.

Read the event summary (PDF).

The panel event was followed by the 37th Annual Schumann Lecture for Healthful Living, "Queering the outdoors: A Journey up my own personal mountain," presented by Perry Cohen, MEd, Founder of the Venture Out Project.

The First Gathering of the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity

Working Together to Improve Health for Rural New England Communities, November 7, 2022

The Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity held its first gathering on an unseasonably warm day on November 7, 2022 at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont. Approximately 150 people came together to learn from one another about health disparities in our region and to participate in meaningful dialogue about how to advance health equity in our communities through partnership and collective action.

Across various breakout sessions focused on health challenges, skill building, and partnership, several key themes emerged throughout the day.

Rural health equity news