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 Infrastructure
Stress
•
•
•
•
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
• Independent Living
• Employment
– Self-employment
– Rural economic
development and job
creation
– Health Plans for
Employment
– Teleconferencing for
Delivering VR Services
– 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 Dabson
Research 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