ViTAL Chats: Health Disparities in Rural Populations and what RHI is Doing to Help
With Laurel Valente and Sia Shah
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Hello and welcome back to ViTAL chats. I am one of your hosts, Laurel, and on today’s episode, we will be learning more about rural health and healthcare access in collaboration with Northeastern’s Rural Health Initiative Club. I will be chatting with Sia Shah, a student here at Northeastern who has found a passion in making a change with regards to disparities in access to healthcare, especially in rural populations. Hello Sia, welcome to ViTAL chats, we are so excited to have you.
Sia Shah (RHI): Hi Laurel, thanks for having me!
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): So, to start off, I would love to hear a little bit about you and your role in RHI.
Sia Shah (RHI): Yeah! So I’m Sia, I’m a second-year student at NU, I’m studying health science and biochemistry. I’m from upstate New York and my main role in RHI is events coordinator. And I love this position because I get to be creative and work with the other members of our e-board to make being in RHI a great experience for all our members. So, some of the events that I planned are speaker events, we had Dr. Stephanie Sun, a physician at Mass General Hospital come last month along with her colleague, Damon Leader Charge, who is located out in the Rosebud reservation in South Dakata. They came and talked to our members about challenges concerning rural health and their work out in rural areas. Dr. Tim Callaghan is also coming to Northeastern next week, he’s a professor at BU who’s going to be speaking to ViTAL members as well about health law and policy and how it relates to rural health. In the club I also get to do a lot of collaborations with other clubs. We did a blanket making with Pinky Swear, and a vitals workshop with AMWA. All of which have been really fun getting to plan as well as getting to know members of other clubs.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Wow, that’s awesome, it seems like you have a really engaging role. I would also love to learn more about RHI in general and maybe some of the projects you guys are currently working on.
Sia Shah (RHI): Yeah, so RHI, which stands for Rural Health Initiative, started as a club to advocate for healthcare disparities faced by rural residents, which we do by creating initiatives tailored to specific issues that these rural individuals encounter. So, our first initiative was the creation of a tele-friend program, which was based out in Maine because that’s where our advisor, Dr. Kathy Simmonds, is based. And it connects older adults in rural areas to Northeastern students for weekly Zoom calls. So, the initiative has definitely seem great success in helping to reduce social isolation and feelings of loneliness post-pandemic in older populations. So, from there, we actually saw a need in help regarding digital literacy because older adults did not know how to navigate Zoom properly so Noah and Alex, our research co-leads, began to develop a manual that students are now going to be able to use to improve internet competency in adults living in rural populations. And then finally, our newly established immigrant initiative, which I can touch on more, the main goal of it is to pair immigrants to the United States with Northeastern students so that they can practice their English skills, to help them eventually get back to the workforce or find access to healthcare if they don’t know how to navigate the American Healthcare System yet.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Wow, it seems like you guys have made a big impact so far and it will be great to see what you’re able to accomplish in the future. I’m curious, what made you initially want to join RHI, and contribute to its mission?
Sia Shah (RHI): Growing up as the daughter of immigrants, I always had a passion for healthcare, but specifically healthcare for those who might not have the financial means to receive it or don’t really know how, which is a problem that we’re definitely seeing in rural population. So, when I heard that Rural Health Initiative works with rural organizations, I asked if we could start an immigrant initiative, because often times we see immigrants come to rural areas in the United States and if we could help those who have just come to the US from other countries and give them the help they need to get back into the workforce, and find any healthcare providers because obviously that’s a very large part of moving to a new country. So, we’re currently partnered with the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, which specifically gateways immigrant services in Maine, and we’re pairing Northeastern students with individuals of these organizations, both kids and adults, to help them build their English-speaking skills. So, this is something that I have found to grow fulfilling along with the other initiatives along with the other initiatives that RHI has spearheaded, so it is definitely something that I knew I wanted to be a part of.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): That’s awesome, what are you looking to accomplish, both within your role in RHI and with other members as well as individually with regards to rural health?
Sia Shah (RHI): I mean, the end goal is definitely just to help as many people as possible, whether that’s providing them with companies to put less of a strain on mental health or helping them navigate the healthcare system through digital literacy and English practice so that they can find a provider and get the physical healthcare that they need. But it’s also been very eye opening for me to see the disparities growing up, to see the individuals who struggle to gain access to care, and I think that’s a very valuable experience for others to gain. So, it’s been great getting to educate other students on these disparities whether that’s members of our club, or just my friends. So, I think that’s also a large part of what I’m hoping to accomplish.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): I can’t wait to see what you’re able to do within your role and within the club. I’m also curious, with all the projects you’ve been doing with RHI, what would say are some of the trends that you’ve seen with limited access to care in rural settings?
Sia Shah (RHI): I think one of the biggest things that we are seeing is that urban populations are more densely populated, of course. So, policy makers tend to neglect rural areas, which can be very detrimental to the health of people living in these rural areas. Actually, there’s an article that came out a couple years ago that said that 65% of rural counties in the United States don’t even have a single ICU hospital bed, which is a very saddening statistic because emergency medicine is obviously a very different sector apart from telehealth, which is super important and there is nothing you can really do about it unless you have close hospital access. Another thing that Dr. Sun touched upon is the opioid crisis and how it’s disproportionately effecting rural areas because there’s a lack of treatment resources and educated healthcare providers who can help these individuals who are struggling from substance use disorders gain access to medications that they might need to help themselves lean themselves off of these drugs, and begin to raise their families in a way that they might hope to.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Along with that, how have you seen improvements in these areas and what trends have you seen kind of throughout that are looking to help these areas that cause disparities?
Sia Shah (RHI): From being in RHI and just listening to speakers who are more educated on these topics, I think the rise in telehealth is something that is improving access to healthcare for rural populations. People can now get care from physicians regardless of how far they actually are from them. But a drawback here, of course, is that navigating telehealth requires a level of digital literacy which people in rural populations may struggle with. And, of course, like I mentioned before, having access to a hospital is very important when it comes to emergent scenarios.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Yeah, it’s really great to see that there are current movements to help with limited access to care and it seems to be an upward progression, so it’ll be nice to see the further improvements in the future. Being in a urban area, living in Boston, at Northeastern, what advice would you give to any students looking to get involved with RHI or with just helping the rural population in general?
Sia Shah (RHI): Yeah, so that was definitely one of our questions when we started coming up with initiatives, because obviously, we aren’t in a rural area, and of course there are individuals here who need help, but since our main goal was to help those in rural populations, especially starting with Maine, we were like, it’s not feasible for us to go and meet with them directly, what can we do to help. But like I said, the rise of Zoom and other meeting platforms make it very easy to make an impact on populations from rural areas. So, definitely if you have a passion for helping those who struggle to gain access to care, or understand the way that healthcare works in America, because it is a very complicated system, online platforms have made that a lot easier. When we first started our English literacy initiative with immigrants, I had no idea that it would expand this quickly, but it has definitely been a very rewarding experience. So, I would recommend anyone that has ideas on how to help, whether that’s starting a new initiative, if there’s a sector of healthcare regarding rural health that you have seen that others can benefit from, definitely talk to someone. You could talk to us at RHI, and we’d be happy to see how it could be implemented. And of course, just volunteer with programs like these, it’s super easy, super rewarding, just to hop on a Zoom call and know that you’ve made an impact on someone else’s life, whether that’s their mental health, or their physical health.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Yeah, definitely. And, if there are any students that would like to join RHI, or want to learn more about it, what steps should they take?
Sia Shah (RHI): So, we have our Instagram page, which outlines all of our initiatives, you can definitely check that out. I believe it’s @neu_rhi. Or, I can have Laurel send our information, we would love to have more members come to our meetings. We do a lot of fun things and collaborations with clubs. We get to learn; I actually just joined RHI less than a year ago and I’ve learned so much about rural health and what we can do to help other individuals. So, you can definitely stop by a meeting and see how you feel about it!
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): Awesome! Well thank you so much for joining us here on ViTAL Chats, it was great talking with you and learning more about RHI and rural health in general.
Sia Shah (RHI): Of course, super happy to be here, it was great talking to you as well.
Laurel Valente (ViTAL): On this episode of ViTAL chats, we learned more about rural health and the disparities that individuals face in rural communities. Sia shared not only some of the trends that limit access, but some of the ways that improvements are being made, and how students can make a difference. We hope you enjoyed this episode of ViTAL Chats. If you are interested in learning more about RHI, rural health, and policies, join us to hear from Dr. Tim Callaghan as a collaboration event between ViTAL and RHI this Wednesday, November 15. Visit our Instagram page to see more information on the event. Thanks for tuning in!
