Behavioral telehealth is a reasonable solution to the accessibility to mental health care problem that exists in many rural communities. This paper reports the results of a multiple case study of a behavioral telehealth program administered through a marriage and family therapy training program. The results suggest that mental health services can be effectively delivered using existing distance...

INTRODUCTION Little is known about Australian rural women's overall experiences of accessing an abortion service and the barriers they encounter. Approximately one in three Australian women access an abortion at some time in their lives. Most abortions are undertaken during the first trimester of pregnancy in private clinics. Although both medical and surgical abortions are uncomplicated medica...

INTRODUCTION With the escalating costs of health care, issues with recruitment and retention of health practitioners in rural areas, and poor economies of scale, the question of delivering people to services or services to people is a dilemma for health authorities around the world. People living in rural areas have poorer health outcomes compared to their urban counterparts, and the problem of...

UNLABELLED INTRTODUCTION: A shortage of health workers is a major problem for Nigeria, especially in rural areas where more than 70% of the population live. At the primary care level, trained community health officers provide services normally reserved for doctors or medical specialists. The community health officers must therefore be supported and motivated to provide effective quality healthc...

In most traditional communities definitions of health and illness intertwine with local beliefs and customs, and part of social and cultural facts that constitute everyday reality for the people. The basic principles of primary health care advocate essential health care that is scientific, and practical provided within a social and cultural context, using appropriate technologies readily availa...

OBJECTIVE This study attempts to quantify the impact of the introduction of local second-level health services on nonmedical costs (NMCs) for residents of the rural Ecuadorian county of La Maná. METHODS NMCs for patients accessing second-level health care were assessed by using a quasi-experimental pre- and postintervention study design. In 2007, before local second-level health care services...

OBJECTIVE The present study was aimed at analysing socioeconomic inequity regarding the use of health services in Ecuador, inequity regarding the geographic distribution of healthcare-related human resources and reflecting on the challenges concerning equity which the Ecuadorian health system is currently facing. METHODS The Ecuadorian Demographic, Maternal and Infant Health Survey (2004) was...

Introduction On the occasion the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) completing its five years, Mr. G B Azad, minister of health and family welfare, declared in his speech “the non-availability of critical human resources continues to be an even larger challenge for which there are no easy solutions”. One of the key priorities of NRHM is to increase availability of human resources in rural Ind...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease (CVD), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, has similar incidence in metropolitan and rural areas but poorer cardiovascular outcomes for residents living in rural and remote Australia. Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) is an evidence-based intervention that helps reduce subsequent cardiovascular events and rehospitalisation. Unfortunately CR attendance rates a...

The characteristics of rural health and the issues driving the delivery of healthcare services to the rural environment are very different from those of metropolitan centers. Geographical isolation and its effect on access to health services is the defining element of rural health (1). In addition, the differing social, lifestyle, and environmental determinants of health in the rural population...