BACKGROUND Rural communities in Australia face significant disadvantages relating to geographical isolation and limited access to mental health services. Documenting general practitioners' (GP) experiences and perception of mental health services in rural Australia may be useful to gain insight into rural GP management of mild to moderate depression. AIMS To explore GPs' experience and views ...

Emergency medical services (EMS) throughout South Africa are of unequal quality owing to historical population inequalities and under-resourced EMS in rural areas. There are no data regarding the quality of ambulance services in the rural Eastern Cape. The assessment of EMS is not easy, but an assessment tool has been established. We prospectively audited the response time to ambulance requests...

OBJECTIVE Lack of access to healthcare is frequently cited as a primary reason for health disparities globally, especially in poor, rural areas such as Appalachia in the U.S. This study examined predictors of perceived access to healthcare among residents in a poor, medically underserved, rural Appalachian community. METHODS The study was guided by the revised behavioral model of healthcare s...

BACKGROUND In Ghana, between 1,400 and 3,900 women and girls die annually due to pregnancy related complications and an estimated two-thirds of these deaths occur in late pregnancy through to 48 hours after delivery. The Ghana Health Service piloted a strategy that involved training Community Health Officers (CHOs) as midwives to address the gap in skilled attendance in rural Upper East Region ...

BACKGROUND Haiti is among the countries facing serious shortages in human resources for healthcare. In rural Haiti, the need for daily, long-term adherence to medication for HIV and TB was initially the driving factor for recruitment of community health workers (CHW) during scale-up of HIV services. Their role became broader over time. This qualitative study evaluated the role of CHW in the hea...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of schizophrenia is known to be greater in urban than in rural areas. Less studied are differences between the patients themselves and, more specifically, their use of psychiatric services. METHOD The prevalence of schizophrenia was determined in rural Nithsdale in Scotland and urban Nunhead and Norwood in South London. Information about patients' psychiatric history...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this research was to validate a conceptual model for developing palliative care in rural communities. This model articulates how local rural healthcare providers develop palliative care services according to four sequential phases. The model has roots in concepts of community capacity development, evolves from collaborative, generalist rural practice, and utilizes ex...