Dennis Berens, president of the National Rural Health Association, called media coverage of Health Policy a failure – but not the only failure in framing the issue for the public.
Kansas psychiatrist Roy Menninger said barriers to mental health services in rural have changed little over the past three decades, with serious consequences.
And while a growing population of seniors are drawing on health resources, soaring childhood obesity rates are another drain in the often impoverished areas, experts on aging and childhood said.
Those were some of the highlights of Rural Health Journalism Workshop 2010 in Kansas City, Mo., on June 4. More than 50 people attended the event, part of the Association of Health Care Journalists’ Midwest Health Journalism Program.
With 15 speakers and other topics including health disparities and oral health, attendees of the free, daylong event left with story ideas and new resources to enhance their reporting.
