Rural marginalized communities pave the way for healthier futures
Across rural America, communities of color may be facing barriers to health care, but they’re also laying the groundwork for a more equitable future. Whether it’s hospitals reopening, a community’s holistic approach to maternal care or the grassroots work to bring comprehensive services to immigrants, these stories from INN’s Rural News Network and led by Capital B and The Associated Press, offer a roadmap.
Advocates, hospital and clinic administrators and rural residents across the country say changing the health outcomes and health care services in rural America needs to start at the local level — especially in communities of color that may lack trust in medicine or the ability to communicate in their language.
Into the void left by a health care system that doesn’t offer sufficient translation services and an economy that demands grueling labor from low-wage agricultural and meatpacking workers, Punjabi residents in California’s Central Valley have created an organization to help each other.
Immigrant rights advocates say North Carolina makes it harder for undocumented workers to access health care services. The challenges are exacerbated by recent legislative threats such as HB 10, which would require local sheriffs to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As a result, many farmworkers don’t seek care, and often suffer from chronic conditions that often go undiagnosed until it’s too late.
In the last six years, five maternity units have closed down across rural Virginia, impacting access to prenatal care. However, with the closures have come new models of care. A statewide shift toward doula services aims to ease maternal morbidity, particularly among Black mothers.
From 1990 to 2020, 334 rural hospitals have closed across 47 states, which disproportionately affect areas with higher populations of Black and Hispanic people. Since 2011, hospital closures have outnumbered new hospital openings. In Brownsville, they’ve been able to do the impossible: reopen a full-service hospital. They’re not the only ones.
Jenny Stratton with CatchLight contributed to this report. This story is part of a collaborative reporting effort led by the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network. Support from the Walton Family Foundation made the project possible.
