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| navigate: home: magazine: spring 2003: article | |
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Penn State conference focuses on rural women and mental health By Karen L. Trimbath | |||||||||||
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The relationship between mental, behavioral and physical health and the quality of life of rural women was the theme of the 2002 National Rural Women’s Health Conference. The Penn State conference focused on identifying strategies to promote health and examined policy issues concerning the provision of mental health services. The conference also featured evidence-based best practices from nationally renowned experts. Held in Washington, D.C., the conference grew out of the Rural Women’s Health Initiative, a collaboration of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Health and Human Development and College of Medicine and Penn State Cooperative Extension. “The Rural Women’s Health Initiative is a relatively unique example of an intercollege, interdisciplinary consortium of individuals who are committed to improving the lives of rural women through outreach efforts to health professionals, policy makers and women in their communities,” Dr. Luanne Thorndyke, associate dean for professional development at the College of Medicine, said. She is one of the original founders of the initiative. “Our educational activities have addressed topics ranging from cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis to biobehavioral health and rural health policy,” she added. “This conference addressed the major environmental, geographic and demographic factors impacting the lives of rural women and the barriers to receiving adequate health care, particularly mental health care, for rural women.” Faculty participating in the initiative represent each of the three colleges and are involved in such areas as women’s health, family and community medicine, rural nursing, nutrition, family and consumer sciences, adolescence, gerontology and biobehavioral health. In keeping with the initiative’s interdisciplinary focus, organizers took a broad approach to developing the conference’s goals and agenda. The planning committee assembled a board of advisers with national representation from leaders in the field. The planning committee worked with the national advisory board to develop an outstanding roster of speakers who have both expertise and national prominence in their field. Multiple sessions featured invited speakers from across the country. The conference also featured a poster session where more than 25 posters were presented in an evening session. Organizers said this approach was in keeping with Penn State’s mission of teaching, research and outreach. Attendees came from across the nation and from Canada and Israel. The audience included health and social services professionals. Many of them are licensed psychologists, physicians and social workers. Educators, researchers and policy makers also attended, some of whom represented special populations, such as Native Americans. Organizers anticipate a series of conferences that will continue to focus national attention on the health needs of rural women. The event was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. Current funding will support two more conferences, in 2004 and 2006. “We have a special opportunity to reach out to the rural population,” Dr. Fred W. Vondracek, associate dean for undergraduate studies and outreach in the College of Health and Human Development, said. “We take this land-grant mission very seriously. Because of our collaboration with other colleges and Outreach, we can collectively speak authoritatively about rural women’s health.” “The conference offered so many opportunities for people to come together to discuss these issues,” Lisa Davis, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, said. “Everyone involved, from organizing committees to presenters to the funding agencies, certainly showed a dedication to improving rural women’s lives.” FACTS ABOUT RURAL WOMEN
Rural women are not a homogenous group; instead, they come from diverse cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Thirty percent of American women live in rural areas across the nation. However, rural America lacks political influence, so rural mental health services do not figure prominently in mental health policy, according to conference organizers.
Factors such as isolation, higher rates of poverty, domestic violence and lack of education and economic opportunity, combined with high levels of physical stress, put rural women at high risk for mental and behavioral health problems. Too frequently, mental illness and behavioral disorders go undiagnosed and untreated due to the limited access to rural health-care providers and the reluctance of the women to seek assistance.
“Rural women tend to be more isolated and stressed than their male counterparts,” Davis said. “For instance, a woman who lives on a farm has many responsibilities. Not only does she tend to work off the farm, she must also run the house, take care of the kids and finances and serve as a helpmate for her husband. Because rural families are more private, they may view seeking treatment for mental health issues as a tremendous stigma. If everybody in a small town knows your truck, just parking outside a mental health clinic is problematic.”
Although women make up the majority of the U.S. rural population, research on the links among mental, behavioral and physical health for this segment is limited. Dr. Carol Gold, research scientist and senior lecturer in the College of Health and Human Development, points out the need for practitioners to adopt a holistic mind/body approach when treating rural women. That’s why she said conference organizers sought presenters who could discuss the mental health needs of rural women, the barriers to care and treatment of mental illness and examples of best practices.
“We need to examine whether mental health problems arise because of physical disorders,” Gold added. “Primary care physicians or nurses may not be trained to look for mental health issues when treating rural patients. Their time is often stretched beyond their limits.” CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Dr. Regina Benjamin, associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama’s College of Medicine, presented the keynote address. She is the first African-American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association’s board of trustees. Other conference speakers included Dr. Pamela Mulder, associate professor of psychology, Marshall University; Dr. Kathleen McNamara, assistant chief of psychology practice, Department of Veteran’s Affairs, University of Hawaii; and Carolyn Lofgren, senior regional women’s health liaison and adviser on regional women’s health for the Office on Women’s Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
Numerous Penn State faculty and administrators also participated at the conference, including Dr. Patricia A. Book, associate vice president for outreach and executive director of the Division of Continuing Education; Dr. Marilyn Corbin, assistant director of Penn State Cooperative Extension and state program leader for children, youth and families; Dr. Darrell Kirch, dean of the College of Medicine and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and Dr. Raymond Coward, dean of the College of Health and Human Development. Gold presented a poster on differences in mental health indicators and psychotropic drug use between rural and urban older women, and Dr. Kathleen Fisher, assistant professor of nursing, gave a presentation on health disparities for individuals living in rural counties.
The conference also featured a town hall session in which participants could express opinions, offer recommendations and pose questions related to the conference theme. The session, which featured a panel of experts, was moderated by Penn State alumna Dr. Wanda K. Jones, director of the Office of Women’s Health, Department of Health and Human Services. She also served on the 2002 conference advisory board.
According to Jones, the town hall enabled practitioners and researchers to connect with community leaders to learn about effective approaches in providing mental health care for rural women. She noted both attendees and panelists made the town hall session productive and lively as they shared the lessons learned from rural women.
“Rural women tell us what has worked for them. We’ve learned a lot about their resiliency,” Jones added. “We think of rural women as isolated, but it’s astonishing how networked they are. Women are the backbone of their community, and this is even more so in a rural community. They weave together and uphold school boards, parents, church and friendships. It’s a very telling lesson for us all.” RURAL WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE
The initiative’s goal is to enhance the knowledge and skills of professionals who provide health care for women of all ages living in rural areas and to provide rural women with relevant, timely and useful health-care information.
“We bring research expertise, an extensive outreach network and the ability to contribute educationally to a broad learning community that in the case of rural women’s health includes providers, consumers and policy makers,” Vondracek said.
The initiative’s thrust thus far has been in developing programs for researchers, practitioners, medical professionals, policy experts and consumers. Programs have included several statewide conferences held in 2000 and 2001 that addressed specific disease states impacting the quality of health for women living in rural areas. The 2002 conference evolved from these conferences.
An important next step is to broaden the impact of these efforts into research and policy arenas and work with other organizations that share an interest in rural women’s health.
Media products for educating rural women also are being developed; these include a book on rural women’s health under the editorial leadership of Coward. The volume will contain a selection of reports presented at the 2002 conference. Also under development are fact sheets aimed at rural women and a Web site and educational videotapes to be used in Cooperative Extension outreach activities.
An outreach program of the College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Health and Human Development, College of Medicine and Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension | ||||||||||
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