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(Left to right) Christiane Brems, Mark Johnson, Laura Roberts, Teddy Warner, Janet Brody, Khanh Nguyen, Pamela Monaghan, and Lee Sechrest
Roughly fifteen million rural residents in the United States struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, HIV, Hepatitis B and C, other sexually transmitted/infectious diseases, and mental disorders. Rural life, furthermore, has been characterized as having distinct features that create significant barriers to care for these stigmatizing illnesses. We are studying clinical practice domains that are the cornerstone for ethically sound treatment – the therapeutic alliance, confidentiality, informed consent, and treatment compliance. We ultimately seek to help improve the care of highly vulnerable rural individuals through our five-year study of rural caregivers in Alaska and New Mexico. The specific aims of this project are:
- To systematically collect narrative data to identify and understand barriers adversely affecting clinicians' efforts to care for people with stigmatizing illnesses in various rural and urban settings.
- Based on these qualitative findings, to develop a new health care survey instrument and conceptual model to characterize these special aspects of rural care giving for stigmatizing illnesses.
- We will then collect quantitative data from multidisciplinary clinicians in Alaska and New Mexico.
- We will use this information to identify educational and informational resources that may improve care for stigmatizing illnesses.
Learn more about Rural Health Care in Alaska
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