STATE OF THE SCIENCE IN RURAL DISABILITY AND REHABILITATION

Toward a Community Paradigm

State of the Science

• Review the importance of disability in rural America

• Review our approach to research

• Reflect on what we have accomplished

• Consider future directions

Sanders County Montana – One Rural Story

• Established in 1905 in Northwestern Montana• Encompasses the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness and two

National Forests. • 2,770 Square Miles • Population of 11,413 for 4.1 souls per square mile • Thompson Falls is county sear with a population of 1,321• To Missoula 96 miles • To Spokane, WA 125 miles

Community InfrastructureStress

• Economically • Medically • Educationally• Housing

So, given all of this, why, you might ask, would anyone choose to live in

Sanders County?

Rural Visions Can Mask Rural Reality

Environment and Community

Role for Research and Knowledge Translation

• Identify and document issues • Develop an understanding of the

dynamics of rural communities and the life of people with disabilities

• Develop evidence-based policies and practices to solve problems and enhance participation

• Support the wide-spread dissemination and use of evidence-based practices

Rural Opportunities

• 32,070 communities have less than 10,000 – half less than 1,000

• Their population is roughly equivalent to that of the top 97 cities – about 57 million

• Huge laboratory In

Broad Research Agenda

• People with disabilities living in rural communities have many of the same concerns as their urban counterparts but experience them In different ways.

Outcome Oriented Approach• Ecological view of disability

and of rural communities• Intervention bias• Social validity through PAR• Appropriate and

sustainable solutions • Design for major system to

increase the likelihood of wide-spread use.

Selected Evidence Based Products

• Employment– Self-employment– Rural economic

development and job creation

– Health Plans for Employment

– Teleconferencing for Delivering VR Services

• Independent Living – Rural transportation– Monitoring community

accessibility– IL Outreach Models

• Rural Health– Secondary Conditions

Screening – Living Well with a Disability– Working Well with a

Disability

The Future Of Disability In Rural America Is Tied To The Future Of

Rural America Itself• What is rural America? • What are the trends in rural America and how will they

influence disability and rehabilitation? • What is the role of disability and rehabilitation providers

in rural communities? • What can disability and rehabilitation service providers

and rural community developers learn from each other?

Brian DabsonResearch Professor and Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute’s Rural Futures Lab at the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri

Integration

• Questions• Comments• Issues

Some Stray Points

• While cities grow increasingly indistinguishable from one another, small towns and rural areas offer a diversity that still represents the laboratory of community.

• Practices that work in rural also are likely to work in cities , though the converse is not true.

• As cities move to create livable communities, they draw upon many of the principles at heart based in rural community development