rural health

More than 43 million Americans drink, bathe, and cook with water from private wells, which can be tainted by farm or industrial runoff, leaky septic systems, or naturally occurring minerals.

Mississippi has the highest rate of Black maternal mortality and morbidity in the U.S. Now, it also has a federal grant to help in rural areas. The award could signal more flexibility from federal officials.

Faced with a slow rollout of the updated vaccines and without state mandates for workers to get vaccinated, most skilled facilities are relying on persuasion to boost vaccination rates among staff and residents.

Parents, educators, and elected officials agree that investing in school-based prevention efforts could help curb the rising rate of youth drug overdoses. The well-known DARE program is one likely choice, but its effectiveness is in question.

Like much of rural America, LaFayette, Alabama, has no hospital or urgent care clinic. As the town's two primary care doctors approach retirement, some experiments are bubbling up to care for people.

For rural Americans, who live in areas often short of mental health services and die by suicide at a far higher rate than urbanites, the federally mandated crisis phone line is one of the few options to connect with a crisis counselor.

State attorneys general vowed the funds would go toward tackling the addiction crisis. But as with the tobacco payouts of the 1990s, local officials have started using them to fill budget shortfalls.

Efforts to improve addiction care in jails and prisons are underway across the country. But a rural Alabama county with one of the nation’s highest overdose rates shows how change is slow.

As three years of pandemic stress accelerated an ongoing nationwide mental health crisis, peer respite programs diverted patients from overburdened ERs, psychiatric institutions and behavioral therapists.

On Tuesday, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act began, requiring employers to provide “reasonable accommodations.” But the new law has a big hole.