Success Stories by Source: Outreach Sourcebook, Vol. 9, 1999-2002, Office of Rural Health Policy

• Facilitating Health Care for Special Needs Children in Southwest Washington State
  July 2005
  The project consortium developed survey instruments, policies, procedures, and data forms and then contacted health departments, schools, and local medical and service providers to introduce project services and encourage referral of children with special needs.
• Lincoln Primary Care Center Rural Outreach Grant Program
  July 2005
  The partners in this collaboration used grant funds to improve access to care and the coordination of services by creating a secure, online system for primary care providers to access hospitalization records, and by developing a secure, Internet-based system for health care providers to access medical literature.
• Rural Health Initiative (Stevens Point, Wisconsin)
  July 2005
  This project produced several innovative solutions to the lack of affordable dental care in the area by providing dental health services to low-income residents including: outreach, transportation to dental appointments using Head Start buses, and preventative fluoride supplements.
• Harney County Rural Health Outreach Program
  July 2005
  Consortium partner members designed the Harney County Rural Health Outreach Program to expand and enhance an established mobile primary clinic through patient education, increased trips per month, and increased patient visits per trip through a dial-a-ride program.
• Integrated Primary and Behavioral Health Care
  July 2005
  This project provided case management, integrated behavioral health care, risk reduction services, provider retention initiatives, and transportation for targeted low-income and working-poor families.
• Northland Integrated Network Systematic Disease Management Model Project
  July 2005
  The 17 member network's primary objective was to provide improved care services to residents with chronic diseases (diabetes and asthma) in rural and frontier areas by implementing a disease management process and tracking patients' participation and care services received.
• Rural Health Outreach (Gold Beach, Oregon)
  July 2005
  The project's overriding mission was to stabilize the local clinic while providing health promotion and prevention opportunities in the core areas of heart, breathing, cancer, and diabetes.
• Senior Peer Counseling Project
  July 2005
  Composed of 16 agencies and professional organizations that provide services to seniors in the region, this project was developed to serve seniors age 60 and above who were suffering from mild to moderate situational depression.
• Vector Control and Prevention Program
  July 2005
  This program was designed to educate individuals and communities about the steps they can take to prevent vector borne diseases, and to help control future outbreaks that may jeopardize the health of those who call Palau home.
• Williamsburg School Health Improvement Project
  July 2005
  Three consortium members joined forces to refer students without primary health care to primary care physicians; conduct health screening procedures by a school nurse; provide early periodic screening, diagnosis, and testing services to eligible students enrolled in grades kindergarten through sixth; provide hospitalization intervention for ambulatory-sensitive conditions in children under age 18; conduct health promotion sessions for the 13 county schools; provide counseling intervention services for substance abuse, child abuse, reproductive issues, and violence in each of the 13 county schools; and conduct home visits to provide family support services to families of school students in the 13 local schools.
• Youth Health Initiative
  July 2005
  School-based health clinics were established in six schools in two counties with successful innovations that included free immunizations for all youth in the targeted schools, a social worker to identify and enroll students eligible for Medicaid or CHIP and to perform case management on all enrollees, and teen educational programs and counseling services.
• Community Care Clinic
  July 2005
  Four network members funded and established a clinic to link existing health care providers and social services agencies to address and provide for the medical, emotional, and health education needs of individuals and families in seven counties designated Health Professional Shortage Areas.
• Community Life for Seniors Project
  July 2005
  This project established a point of contact for the elderly population to access all needed health and social services available in the community with the specific goal of enabling elderly individuals to remain in as close to normal living circumstances for as long as appropriate and desirable.
• Expansion of Rural Dental Health Care Services in Macoupin and Montgomery Counties, Illinois
  July 2005
  Grant funds allowed this coalition to step up development of the dental clinic's comprehensive oral health services by purchasing equipment, expanding their hours, developing the clinic as a satellite teaching site, providing assistance to families newly eligible for Medicaid and offering oral health education to children in primary grades at all local schools.
• Fort Peck Community College Rural Health Outreach
  July 2005
  This outreach project was established to improve the health and fitness level of the tribal adult population of the Fort Peck Reservation and eligible individuals over the age of 14 living adjacent to the reservation.
• Greater Iron County Advanced Life Support Project
  July 2005
  The project's primary goal was to improve and upgrade the prehospital healthcare delivery system in Iron County, Michigan by creating a full-time hospital-based paramedic transportation system to address the dwindling personnel resources, outdated transportation equipment, high cost of paramedic equipment, and the lack of access to a community-based paramedic-training program.
• Healthy Kids Clinic
  July 2005
  Three local school districts, two local health departments, one nonprofit health agency, and all local area physicians and dental providers formed a consortium to provide health and dental services to students in the schools regardless of income or insurance status.
• Humphreys County Memorial Hospital Rural Health Outreach Program
  July 2005
  The project's main goals were to increase the numbers of K - 12 students who are covered by health insurance, who use the health care services provided, and who follow up on recommended health care; to increase transportation to primary and specialty health providers; and to decrease the number of families of K - 12 students who are noncompliant in regard to their children's health needs.
• Kokua Program
  July 2005
  The primary objectives of this consortium of six area health service providers, agencies, and universities were to reach and educate local women on breast and cervical cancer, and provide health screenings using culturally appropriate methods that reduce fear and anxiety.
• Maximizing Independence of Rural Elderly Through Use of Assistive Technology and Access to Health Care Services
  July 2005
  Five organizations joined together to address the health care needs of the aging rural Iowa population by providing assistive technologies and home modifications, increasing access to primary health care and rehabilitative therapies, and educating rural elderly and health care workers to help identify potential hazards in homes.
• Montana EMT-I Transition Project
  July 2005
  This network helped rural EMS providers integrate into the community and transition to the new training and care standards set forth in EMT-I.
• Moving Beyond Enrollment
  July 2005
  This network was formed to support experienced community-based outreach workers in providing the follow-up necessary to educate Medicaid clients, help them solve problems, and utilize the health care system most effectively in order to receive health care.
• Richland Health Network
  July 2005
  Using a nurse and social worker team case management model to address community needs, this consortium was designed to provide a coordinated approach to health screening, assessment, and education, and provide case management for residents aged 55 and older who are at risk for preventable hospitalizations.
• Rural Health Outreach (Kansas)
  July 2005
  This project was designed to develop and operate a network of Health and Wellness Centers in order to provide comprehensive primary care, prevention, health education, and transportation services to locally owned clinic sites.
• Rural Health Outreach (Maine)
  July 2005
  The care management services provided by this project facilitated a cooperative effort among health care providers, patients, and community support services to create an outpatient care management program for rural consumers, especially the elderly, people with disabilities, minorities, and children who have chronic health problems including chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.
• Rural Health Outreach Grant Program (West Wendover, Nevada)
  July 2005
  Four consortium members created this program to provide local access to mental health services and to provide a school-based program teaching resiliency and social skills to school-aged children and their parents.
• Something to Smile About: Preventive Dental Care Project for Garrett County
  July 2005
  This network was established to provide dental health care to underserved individuals by utilizing existing private providers and providing additional dental care service through a community dental health center, coordinate community efforts to negotiate with managed care organizations (MCOs) and recruit needed health providers to the area, and develop and conduct a comprehensive education campaign promoting preventive dental health care.
• St. George Clinic Rural Health Outreach Program
  July 2005
  In response to the recognized health care need and a survey of citizens indicating that 76 percent would use a health clinic if available, partners in the county built a small building to provide health and social services to one-third of county residents living in the southern region.
• Tri-County Health Connections Network
  July 2005
  This project was a community-based initiative to enhance prevention and early intervention services for pregnant and postpartum women, their infants, and families living in rural central Iowa.
• Warrior Wellness Center
  July 2005
  To address the serious issue of teen pregnancy in Jefferson County, a network was formed to establish an effective mechanism for proactive pregnancy prevention and health promotion outreach for the county's rural adolescents.
• Wellness Partnership for a Healthy McKinley County
  July 2005
  This project involved an innovative education program that used high school students to mentor elementary students in diabetes prevention techniques with the goal to improve the wellness of the community by developing healthy living skills in the 10-to 12-year-old population, and specifically to incorporate diabetes awareness activities into this target group's school day.
• Farmworker Case Management Across Borders
  July 2005
  This project's overall objective for the migrant and seasonal worker populations was to increase their access to health services and specifically: (1) to increase management of their chronic diseases; (2) to increase completion of their treatment for communicable diseases; (3) to reduce their need for emergency dental care; and to increase their access to vision care.
• For Our Children
  July 2005
  The project objective was to provide improved health care services to 2,500 K - 12 students by using grant funds to provide a full-time Registered Nurse and one dedicated social worker to local public schools.
• Health for a Lifetime
  July 2005
  This project was designed to combat cardiovascular disease by addressing the modifiable risk factors, as described by the American Heart Association, in three populations: hourly wage workers, the African American faith community, and middle school children.
• Healthy Connections West
  July 2005
  The goal of this project was to provide mental health intervention services to targeted children and their families in order to achieve improved academic and social performance.
• Project for Rural Access to Substance Abuse Treatment
  July 2005
  This collaboration was formed to provide substance abuse treatment, primary medical care, childcare, and transportation assistance to residents in rural areas of the county.
• Screven County Hospital Rural Health Outreach Program
  July 2005
  Developed to bring health care to rural communities in Screven County, this project was designed to identify people at risk for cardiac, cerebral vascular and diabetic health problems through the use of outreach health screenings.