Project Leads: Valerie Harder, PhD, MHS (valerie.harder@med.uvm.edu) & Erika Ziller, PhD (erika.ziller@med.uvm.edu)

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a prevalent and growing concern affecting the health of rural populations and communities. While multiple studies have identified challenges to accessing treatment services for SUDs among rural populations, there is a need to more systematically summarize the research to date. This project will produce a comprehensive research synthesis summarizing the current knowledge on rural SUD treatment access that will be an informative asset to policy makers and researchers.

Project Leads: Erika Ziller, PhD (erika.ziller@med.uvm.edu) & Jean Talbot, MPH, PhD (jean.a.talbot@maine.edu)

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are of significant concern to the health and wellbeing of rural populations and communities. While multiple studies have identified generally similar rates of SUD for rural and urban populations, and others have noted barriers to rural SUD treatment access, there is a need for updated and more comprehensive data. This project will produce a chartbook on rural SUD prevalence and perceived access to screening, treatment, and recovery resources.

Project Lead: Yvonne Jonk, PhD (yvonne.jonk@maine.edu)

This project will build upon previous work documenting that rural residents are more likely than urban residents to live in areas with limited access to hospitals, clinics, and ambulance services. We will examine rural-urban variation in health care infrastructure in 41states to assess the implications for rural aging of post-acute and long-term care deserts (e.g., lack of skilled nursing facilities and/or swing beds and long-term services provided by nursing homes) combined with ambulance and other health care deserts.