Rural Health Day
By Fay Mitchell
Rural communities are wonderful places to live and work, which is why approximately 57 million people — one in five Americans — call them home. These rural communities also have unique healthcare needs. National Rural Health Day falls on the third Thursday in November each year and recognizes the efforts of those serving the health needs of an estimated 57 million people across the nation.
When I hear the term rural health, I think of growing up in eastern North Carolina in the ’60s and Dr. J. P. Harrison making house calls to the homestead farmhouse where my father had grown up. It was a wise move for him, as my dad was one of 15 children and there likely would be some business to be done on someone there whenever he called.
They were all grown up when I was a child, and my family lived a couple of miles up the road. (my mom discovered the in-law life was not for her). But still, Dr. Harrison came in his old black Buick, as two of my old maid aunts and two single uncles still lived there. Usually, I was a casual observer from the porch that stretched across the house as he offered some pill or potion to one of my aunts, but occasionally I was the object of his attention. I particularly remember a torturous act he performed, “mopping the throat” as a treatment and for sore throat and colds. Yes, he literally but a dark red liquid on cotton gauze and stuck in down my throat and mildly scrubbed. It was kind of painful, really more uncomfortable, and it made an impression. I think the fear of repetition was the cure.
But a doctor was not always available and there were some standard cures on hand for colds and minor ills. Cod liver oil was generally a preventative. Then there was Father John’s, creamy brown treatment for colds or flu, unpleasant to the taste and no fun to swallow. Vic’s Vaporub was ever-present for colds, fevers, and various other ills, to be applied to the forehead or chest and sometimes swallowed.
There were other exotic treatments, like applying sardines to the swelling of mumps, or calamine lotion to measles, and Fletcher’s Castoria for constipation. Thank goodness for ginger ale for an upset stomach. I was never dosed with the truly exotic sassafras or rabbit tobacco tea and am grateful not to have contracted whatever they were meant to cure.
By the time I was in high school these treatments were mostly memories, and the practices discouraged. There were doctors in the small towns, and small-town hospitals too. Today there are 15 Rural Health Centers in underserved counties that practice real science-based medicine in difficult circumstances. These days the presence of doctors and hospitals in rural areas is shrinking thanks to declining populations, escalating costs, and negative policy impacts. The medical professionals who remain often have older, sicker patients. But I wonder if telemedicine can replace Dr. Harrison arriving down the rutted drive in his old black Buick.
Rural populations continue to lag behind their urban counterparts on many health measures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rural communities had a higher rate of unhealthy behaviors, less access to health care and less access to healthy foods compared with urban areas. In North Carolina, where 41 percent — or 4 million people — live in rural areas, the study has larger implications.
Rural health stakeholders can explore a partnership pledge, showcase individuals and organizations selected as 2020 Community Stars, and provide visitors with a variety of tools, including social media posts to help #PowerofRural trend in outlets such as Twitter and Facebook at www.PowerofRural.org. The website also shares how rural communities across the country will be celebrating National Rural Health Day.
