Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJHannah Koch, Psy.D., research and technical assistance associate, Mental Health Program, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
AHCJ’s 10th annual Rural Health Journalism Workshop brought journalists to North Carolina’s Research Triangle to hear from experts who offered resources and story ideas about the health challenges facing the United States’ 47 million rural residents.
Nearly 70 attended the all-day workshop, gaining a better understanding of what’s happening – or will be happening – in rural regions.
The workshop’s luncheon speaker was a licensed psychologist associated with the Mental Health Program of the Western Interstate commission for Higher Education, an organization with a long history of working to address behavioral health needs in rural areas. Hannah Koch, Psy.D., talked through the differences between rural and urban needs, focusing on three behavioral health challenges facing rural America: accessibility, availability and acceptability.
Accessibility challenges include payment and insurance coverage, locations and intake processes, and transportation. Rural areas also often lack availability of trained behavioral health professionals to provide services. Acceptability issues might manifest when rural and frontier residents perpetuate the stigma of mental illness or when services aren’t delivered in a culturally sensitive way.
Throughout the workshop, health care and policy experts offered resources and story ideas about the opioid epidemic, what journalists need to know to cover rural health stories, the rural health workforce, telemedicine and the struggles of rural hospitals.
AHCJ members can click here to access copies of speaker presentations.
The workshop also marked the graduation of the class in AHCJ’s Regional Health Journalism Fellowship program. The fellows – from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky – finished a year-long training program that began in July 2017. The program will continue for 2018-19 with fellows from New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The workshop local host was University of North Carolina Health Care. Sponsors were The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Commonwealth Fund.
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJRobert Bashford, M.D., associate dean, Office of Rural Initiatives, University of North Carolina School of Medicine
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- Photo: Jeff Porter/AHCJRegina LaBelle, J.D., visiting fellow, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJJeffery Heck, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Mountain Area Health Education Center
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJBradley Kolls, M.D., Ph.D., M.M.Ci, neurologist, Duke Health
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- Photo: Jeff Porter/AHCJDonald McDonald, executive director, Addiction Professionals of North Carolina
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJHannah Koch, Psy.D., research and technical assistance associate, Mental Health Program, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
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- Photo: Jeff Porter/AHCJLatoya Thomas, policy director, American Telemedicine Association
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJGeorge Pink, Ph.D., deputy director, North Carolina Rural Health Research Program; Humana distinguished professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJMark Holmes, Ph.D., director, North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center; director, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJAlan Morgan, chief executive officer, National Rural Health Association
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- Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJDana Weston, president, UNC Rockingham Health Care
