When rural hospitals close, it increases the distance people must travel for essential healthcare services. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and magnified the factors leading to rural hospital closures across the country. Many ...
The ASTHO State Health Policy team provides brief updates on 5 of the ten state health policy issues to watch in 2022: mental and behavioral health, rural health, e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products, HIV and PFAS.
Every year, ASTHO performs an annual environmental scan to identify these policy and programmatic priorities. The most recent scan occurred from June 2019 to May 2020. Through ongoing collection of data from a variety of sources—including ...
With many of the state and territorial legislatures reconvening over the next few weeks, we can look forward to new (and not-so-new) legislation start to crop up that will impact public health. To help navigate the new legislative ...
Responsible for planting, growing, harvesting, processing, and preparing the food we eat, agricultural workers are essential workers during the COVID-19 response to keep the U.S. food supply chain operating efficiently. But farmworkers are ...
On this episode, speakers will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on rural health infrastructure and workforce, and how to improve these conditions in rural communities. We hear from three leaders who work in states with high rural healthcare ...
In 2021, ASTHO convened state environmental health directors and directors of public health preparedness to discuss innovations developed during the COVID-19 pandemic such as virtual inspections. This ASTHOBrief explores how state health ...
The youth mental health crisis has created the need for a comprehensive workforce response, which requires educators and school administrative staff, school-based mental health professionals, and communities to work collaboratively to ...
Continuing ASTHO’s Legislative Prospectus series—which highlights the top 10 public health policy issues for 2022—this post focuses on mental and behavioral health, as well as supporting the public health workforce.
Rural hospital closures exacerbate poor socioeconomic conditions, job loss, cost of health services, transportation times and barriers, and inequitable access to quality care, all of which contribute to unfavorable maternal and infant ...
Rural communities are developing tailored, self-determined solutions to their unique challenges, including directing investments into community health worker programs that reduce disparities.
Interview with Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine about how the commonwealth is working to increase access to healthcare in rural communities by working across agencies to support rural hospitals.
For more than a decade, rural hospitals have been closing (or are in danger of closure) at an alarming rate. As a result, states have used a variety of measures to address and prevent rural hospital closures, including tax incentives, ...
In the Public Health Review podcast debut, host Robert Johnson speaks with public health officials from Alaska, Kentucky, and West Virginia about the ongoing opioid epidemic in the U.S. and its intersections with other epidemics like ...
The digital divide in healthcare has created a growing division between communities who have access to digital health technologies and broadband versus those who experience limited access to these resources. Marginalized communities such ...
In-depth analysis on state health policy surrounding rural health. This is part of ASTHO's annual legislative prospectus series.
November 18 is National Rural Health Day, a commemoration started by State Offices of Rural Health to recognize the power and resilience of rural communities. Twenty percent of the U.S. population lives in rural communities. Recognizing ...
This four-part infographic series illustrates key strategies for addressing common challenges and barriers related to increasing access to contraception.