Socioeconomic factors affect people in rural areas by creating barriers to healthcare and preventing them of receiving the care they need. Some people do not have the financial resources for insurance and services such as dental and health insurance, which may be due to lower levels of education that leads to lower income. Transportation is an issue for rural residents to be able to get to a healthcare facility, due to the distance of their home to a facility.
Healthcare organizations can provide care to rural communities to receive care from home such as telehealth, which allows patients to see or talk to a physician via phone, laptop, or mobile device. Mobile health clinics can be provided to rural communities to see a physician as well. Mobile health clinics can travel to rural communities and provide healthcare services that are needed. This can help with transportation and financial issues that prevent people in rural communities from seeing a physician.
The Robert Wood Johnson foundation partnered with UC Francisco to assist in improving health, well-being and equity in rural areas in the U.S. They are focused on public health/healthcare, rural development, community development, housing, and education. Their plans are to advance rural health equity which includes: In your response posts, critique your peers' solutions for providing healthcare to rural communities. Which issue(s) are your peers' solutions addressing, and which obstacles would make their solutions difficult to implement?