Trainings and Resources

The Opioid Use Disorder, Pregnant Women and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS): Addressing the Challenges (Part II) webinar took place on June 9, 2020.

With the support of the Delta Regional Authority and the Health Resources Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the National Rural Health Resource Center provides selected rural Delta hospitals, clinics and their communities with technical assistance through the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development Program. The purpose of the DRCHSD Program is to assist leaders and providers in identifying and addressing health care needs while strengthening the local health care system.

America's Healthy Food Initiative provides technical assistance organizations that are planning a food retail or enterprise project that aligns with the goals of America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded $6.7 million to support the creation of new accredited and sustainable rural residency programs to expand the physician workforce in rural areas. The RRPD program is a multi-year collaborative initiative between HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW) to increase physician training opportunities in rural communities and focus on improving access to high quality health care providers. The incoming RRPD cohort will collaborate with the RRPD-Technical Assistance Center throughout the duration of their three-year grant. To learn more about the RRPD-TA center, please visit www.RuralGME.org.

The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy recently announced $1.365M supporting three awards to improve behavioral health care services in rural counties served by the Northern Border Regional Commission.  This three-year project will support education and training for health professionals in treatment and interventions for behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorder.

JBS’s Robert Childs discussed the key concepts of harm reduction and evidence-based harm reduction interventions that grantees can implement to reduce overdose in their rural communities. Staff from Arkansas Behavioral Health Integration Network shared lessons learned from their RCORP-Planning grant in gaining buy-in for harm reduction concepts and planning for harm reduction services in rural Arkansas.

More than twenty percent of adults—or 1 in 5—experience a behavioral health disorder every year in the United States. Behavioral health disorders can be challenging to identify, screen for and treat, especially in rural communities and the supply of behavioral health providers often cannot meet the demand for services. This webinar highlighted state policy options to increase access to rural behavioral health providers, including leveraging telebehavioral health, considering licensing policies and compacts, utilizing emerging health professionals to address workforce gaps, and examining scope of practice policies for behavioral health professionals.