Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program

forecasted

The Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program (Outreach Program) Program is a community-based grant program aimed towards promoting rural health care services by enhancing health care delivery to rural underserved populations in the local community or region. Through consortia of local health care and social service providers, communities can develop innovative approaches to challenges related to the specific health needs in rural areas that expand clinical and service capacity in rural communities. The overarching goals for the Outreach Program are to: (1) expand the delivery of health care services to include new and enhanced services exclusively in rural communities; (2) deliver health care services through a strong consortium, in which every consortium member organization is actively involved and engaged in the planning and delivery of services; (3) utilize community engagement and evidence-based or innovative, evidence informed model(s) in the delivery of health care services; and (4) improve population health, and demonstrate health outcomes and sustainability. In addition to the program’s regular outreach funding track, the program also includes a special funding track that supports funding to projects seeking to address the underlying factors driving growing rural health disparities related to the five leading causes of avoidable death in the U.S. (heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury/substance use, chronic lower respiratory disease).