Rural Done Right

Meeting Rural Health Care Challenges Together

Health care is teamwork at its best. At the bedside, it’s a group of dedicated and compassionate professionals each contributing their individual skills toward a common goal: to provide great patient care. On a grander scale, it’s a community wrapping its arms around those in need to be sure their physical, behavioral, social and spiritual needs are met.

Such was the case during some of this winter’s coldest days. To provide shelter for the unhoused as the thermometer dipped while the wind howled, we were fortunate enough to be part of a collective effort to offer a warm bed, good meal and referrals to our community’s unhoused population. Together with NAMI-Champlain Valley, St. Joseph’s Outreach, the North Country Community Disaster Hub team, the Clinton County Disaster Mental Health team, Champlain Valley Family Center, United Way of the Adirondack Region, Clinton County Department of Social Services Clinton County Director of Community Services, the American Red Cross, MHAB and The Rural Law Center a Warming Center was opened, providing a safe respite for many during our tough North Country winter. And to be sure there were ample spots for all who needed them, Behavioral Health Services North reserved rooms in a local hotel.

On a smaller but no less meaningful scale, a client of HCR Care Management regained their independence thanks to a partnership with the Foundation of CVPH, the United Way of the Adirondack Region, and the Church of the Nazarene. In a recent Letter to the Editor HCR Care Manager Jullian Hartman expressed thanks for the collaboration, noting that the funding from the Foundation’s Transition for Care fund and the United Way’s Alice Fund covered the materials needed to replace the client’s unusable wheelchair ramp, while members of the Church of Nazarene provided the skilled hands to build it. HCR and the Church of Nazarene also teamed up again to install a new shower for another client. Hartman wrote, “These are two shining examples of what can happen when our community comes together.”

This approach to caring for the community will become even more essential as health care organizations confront decreasing reimbursement, increasing demand and a growing number of uninsured people. The resources of health care facilities and support agencies, especially in rural communities, are already stretched too thin and the realities of our time will assuredly challenge many to find new and innovative ways to fulfill their mission. In this shifting landscape, it becomes increasingly difficult for any single entity to meet all the needs of its patients or clients. Instead, we’ll look to our community partners to fill the gaps. By combining expertise, sharing resources and working toward common goals, the community’s needs can be met more completely and more compassionately than any one organization could achieve alone.

Fortunately for those of us in the North Country, that collaborative spirit and commitment to community is alive and well.