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#RuralDisability eNews

November 2024

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We've been busy!

RTC:Rural researchers have been busy bees and we have loads to share! We have new publications including some exciting collaborations with wonderful partners and national committees, several presentations at the 2024 APRIL Conference in Chicago, a data summit hosted with The Urban Institute, and are recruiting for some vital programs to help us expand our rural disability research. Keep scrolling to learn more!

New Publications!

Disability and Independence in Rural America White Paper

In August 2023, RTC:Rural staff met with members of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services in Missoula, MT to discuss rural disability. The next month, Dr. Meg Ann Traci participated in the Committee’s meeting in Colorado Springs, CO “to discuss access to and delivery of health care and human services support to rural Americans with a disability.” An overview of the valuable discussions from this meeting was compiled into a white paper, which includes several citations of key RTC:Rural research products.

Read the White Paper!

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A young white woman who is standing and reading to an older white woman in a wheelchair. They in between library stacks.

Rural Communication Strategies: Disability and the Role of Public Libraries

How do rural people with disabilities connect with local resources and services and stay in the loop in their communities? To examine one emerging avenue, RTC:Rural Knowledge Translation Coordinator Jeff Gutierrez interviewed staff of small and rural librarians on the expanding role of public libraries and how they reach and tailor programs for rural people with disabilities.

Read the full Fact Sheet!

Collaborative Research Report: Personal Assistance Workforce Capacity and Quality Outcomes

The demand for home-based care services is rivaled by a severe shortage of personal care aides (PCAs). How can the PCA workforce keep up with the increasing demand for home and community-based care? RTC:Rural researchers Luke Santore, Catherine Ipsen, and Lillie Greiman teamed up with Lina Stepick from PHI to analyze the relationship between PCA workforce capacity and the quality of consumer-reported care for long-term services and supports.

Check out the Collaborative Research Report

Building an Inclusive Disability Community in Rural Idaho: Stories from the Magic Valley

A host of RTC:Rural researchers partnered with the APRIL and Living Independence Network Corporation (LINC) in Twin Falls, ID on this community-based research project. LINC staff provide a wide range of services for rural consumers across the approximately 30,000 square miles of their service area, a region locally known as the “Magic Valley.” This report highlights both the incredible person-centered work of staff at LINC’s Twin Falls office and the consumer outcomes of this project.

Read the Magic Valley Research Report!

Improving Care and Accessibility for Rural Patients with Disabilities

"In effect, the transportation was inaccessible even though it was built to be accessible. Having healthcare providers be flexible with those things and not penalize people is important." Interviews from “Patiently Waiting”: How to non-driving disabled adults get around in rural America by RTC:Rural researchers Krys Standley and Andrew Myers were featured in a section on transportation barriers to accessing healthcare in the October 2024 edition of The Rural Monitor.

Read the October Edition of the Rural Monitor

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Other Happenings

The motto for APRIL's most recent conference. "Sharing Pearls of Wisdom."

APRIL Recap and Gratitude

Being from Montana, Chicago might be too big to be "our kind of town", but the good folks at APRIL are our kind of people. At the annual conference in October, RTC:Rural staff kept an active vendor table and contributed four sessions on partnering for CIL research, the Rural Outreach Toolkit, and rural communication strategies utilizing partnerships with public libraries. Thank you to APRIL and everyone who attended. And if you took one of our business cards, please contact RTC:Rural! We would love to hear from you!

Data Summit

RTC:Rural teamed up with The Urban Institute to host a summit dedicated to disability data – rural disability data, of course – entitled Elevating Rural Disability Data for Policy Impact. We are working on a recap. Look for it in the December edition of our enewsletter.

A recording of the summit can be found on The Urban Institutes website.

Data Summit Recording

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NARIC News & Notes

Join NARIC’s News and Notes from the NIDILRR Community and Beyond newsletter! Free weekly updates of new resources, events, news, and opportunities from researchers like us!

Join NARIC's Newsletter!

Program Recruitment

Living Well in the Community & Facilitating Groups Training

These two incredible trainings teach you to facilitate the trainings yourself and take place over 8 weekly sessions. Living Well teaches participants to set and achieve quality of life goals while building skills to support health and wellness. Facilitating Groups teaches the foundations of facilitations, building relationships with participants, active listening, asking questions, and sharing your story.

Email amy.lariviere@mso.umt.edu to learn more or register below.

Visit the Healthy Community Living Website to Register

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Building Capacity for Home Usability

Join us to expand your CIL’s capacity to evaluate, implement, and improve your home usability and home modification program! We are building a small cohort of CILS to collaboratively design and develop evaluation materials and procedures to better understand and communicate the impacts of their housing programs.

Contact lillie.grieman@umontana.edu for more information or apply below.

Home Usability Application

Rural Independence and Self-Sufficiency Education Program

The Rural Independence and Self-Sufficiency Education (RISE) training program is designed to empower rural consumers who use personal assistance services by addressing the unique challenges they face. We are looking for rural consumers of PAS to complete the training and provide us with feedback, and CILs to help us recruit rural consumers.

Learn More About the RISE Training!

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GAO Survey on Disability and Healthcare

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. They would like to hear about how your disability affects your healthcare through a short survey. They will compile the information with other responses into a report to Congress. Any stories shared will not include your name.

Complete the GAO Survey

The Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities (RTC:Rural) conducts research on disability as part of the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities at the University of Montana.

RTC:Rural is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) grant number 90RTCP0008 to improve the ability of people with disabilities to engage in rural community living.