Rural libraries helping improve rural health as hospitals shuttter - Entrepreneur Generations

As rural hospitals close or are stretched thin, libraries are becoming a key partner in helping small-town residents learn about health and nutrition and maintain a healthier lifestyle, Sarah Baird reports for Stateline.

Rural libraries offer everything from free healthy cooking and Zumba classes to seminars on how to prevent diabetes or administer Narcan, the opioid overdose revival drug. In Somerset, Kentucky, for example, the Pulaski County Public Library offers a nutrition class with a registered dietician as well and will soon offer chair yoga. In the nearby town of London, the laurel County Public Library works with a local hospital to offer learning lunches, "an event that pairs a free box lunch with an hourlong lesson on a relevant health topic, from migraines to sepsis. The lunches, launched in 2014, see attendance as high as 40 people. Topics planned for 2020 run from urology to shingles," Baird reports.

Having such offerings in rural areas can make a difference, where residents are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions and drug addiction rates are high, but there are fewer medical resources. "In Eastern Kentucky, the number of primary care physicians is 26% lower than the national average and 21% lower than the rest of the state, according to a 2017 report from the Appalachia Regional Commission and Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky," Baird reports. "Specialty physicians are even harder to find, with 59% fewer specialists in the region than in the nation as a whole."

Rural residents may feel more comfortable coming to the library, than, say a gym, for a yoga class, especially if that person is self-conscious. "Especially in small towns, public libraries serve as a neutral ground, allowing patrons to seek out information or attend classes that they might feel uncomfortable pursuing in a more traditional setting," Baird reports.

However, libraries sometimes lack the funds to implement public health efforts, and often lack the staff to write grants that could net them more funding, Baird reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2oj8rfv Rural libraries helping improve rural health as hospitals shuttter - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet