The digital divide presents a significant challenge in rural Eastern Kentucky, where the absence of broadband internet access has hindered economic development, education, health care, and overall quality of life. Broadband, characterized by high-speed internet access that is always on and faster than traditional dial-up, is a convenience and a…

The FNS Research Corner provides a continuing series to summarize recently completed and current research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the area of child nutrition. Summaries of recently completed research projects and in-progress research are provided in this article.

Objectives: Describe the population, Medicaid, uninsured, and otolaryngology practice demographics for 7 representative rural Southeastern states, and propose academic-affiliated outreach clinics as a service to help meet the specialty care needs of an underserved rural population, based on the "medical mission" model employed in…

Geographical, economic, social and cultural barriers to accessing services in rural areas are widely reported. Less widely discussed are dilemmas posed by individual and community reluctance to address sensitive health issues. This article, focusing on the highly sensitive area of mental health, and employing a participatory action approach,…

Appalachian Leadership Outreach Health Program established community health centers in the homes of volunteers in 10 Kentucky communities. The cost has been nominal, and the advantages in transportion time and improved health awareness and care promise to help meet basic health needs of the rurally isolated. (JC)

Strategies for recruiting physicians to rural Kentucky communities are presented in broad outlines that would also be applicable to other rural communities looking for physicians. After documenting the shortage and maldistribution of physicians in rural America, the factors are described which influence a physician's choice of place to locate--his…

In the early 1960's, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) established a goal to make health care more accessible to the people of the mountains. Today, a primary health care facility is within a 30 minute drive of nearly all Appalachian counties. There has also been a substantial, but still inadequate increase in health care professionals in…

Largely descriptive, this final report of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) chronicles development and implementation of a Family Nurse Practitioner (PRIMEX) training program in a rural area from 1972-76. Centered in Leslie County, Kentucky, this project was one of seven PRIMEX programs in the nation; accomplishments in all of the projects far…

In the Kentucky Homeplace Project, specially trained paraprofessionals who live in medically underserved rural communities make home visits, facilitate access to health care, and provide case management and culturally appropriate prevention education for poor families. Strengths include local administration and staff and holistic and traditional…

Supports renewed funding of the Appalachian Regional Commission's (ARC) "finish-up health plan" and "highway finish-up program." Discusses at length the need for primary care services, prevention of infant mortality, and the lack of physicians in Appalachia, and how the ARC plans can affect these needs. (LC)

Volume I of this final report, an overview of Kentucky's multi-county Rural Child Care Project, describes the project's history, purposes, structure, and procedures in administering child-development, social-work and homemaking services. The day care program, which became a full-year Head Start program in 1967, is one aspect of the effort to…

The proceedings of the 1978 Legislative Work Conference of the Southern Regional Education Board include eight essays on higher education. In the first essay, "Financing Higher Education in the 1980's: Fewer Students, More Dollars?," Lyman A. Glenny outlines nine issues that may affect fixed and variable costs for higher education. In…