Both the rural economy and the disability community in rural areas can benefit from a recognition that they are mutually dependent. With the decline of rural America, the economic base underpinning all aspects of disability support systems is weakening. In addition, rural disability services often are compartmentalized along functional lines with varying degrees of internal interaction and weak linkages to community economic development efforts. Recent research suggests that a starting point for improving the situation would be to take the larger world as a given and out of local control, look at local efficiency as a principle goal, and deal with local problems systemwide rather than piecemeal. Development of nonprofits and consolidation of public services may be ways to regenerate local growth through reorganization of local resources. In Montana, experimental limited-service hospitals in sparsely populated areas provide primary shortterm in-patient care. They are associated with nursing homes and use the administrative and diagnostic capacities of larger hospitals through communication links, thus allowing lower costs and greater utilization of nonphysicians. The concept could be expanded to include vocational and rehabilitation components. This strategy turns community service needs into a vehicle for retaining economic activity within the community. Such a strategy could contribute to consensus-building in the rural community and the development of a local human infrastructure in which all people have a part. (SV)