SAN ANTONIO — Lack of access to medical care and food deserts often go hand in hand, and that can be especially trying during the holidays. One organization is reaching out to rural communities to help them get a better handle on their overall health situation.
It is the American Heart Association and they recognize that rural communities are less populated, but more cohesive so people know each other and support each other, but that also leads to fewer resources.
Jessica Donze Black, the Senior Vice President for Community Health with The American Heart Association told us, "With less concentration of people, we tend to have less primary care, far less tertiary care, specialty care, but also less access to those things that may keep us healthy, like full-service grocery stores or areas to exercise."
In a lot of these places many hospitals have closed or consolidated, making access care even more difficult. Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. or 46 million people lived in rural counties as of July 2021. And the average life expectancy of those in cities was 79.3 years, but in rural areas a shorter 77.4 years.
Donze Black added, "There have been some opportunities to help close those gaps, either via telehealth or other strategies. But the actual direct access to care, unfortunately, has declined some in the past years."
So the American Heart Association is addressing these concerns several ways including their HeartCorps. Donze Black explained, "Which is an AmeriCorps service program where we're actually placing people in rural communities to help connect the dots and help people connect to resources."
They have their Get With The Guidelines Rural Accelerator. Donze Black said it is "really working with rural hospitals and other places that may have lesser resources but really want to provide the best quality care. So helping them be able to execute at the highest standards of care."
Of course they are also working across communities. Donze Black added, "Where there are resources that can be leveraged to give people greater access to help, like making sure that kids have access to healthy school meals and things in that environment."
