Whole Health, Whole Communities - Dialogues to Reduce Rural Health Disparities.

Abstract

Rural communities face disproportionate burdens of chronic disease, mental illness, workforce shortages, and fragmented services despite historic national health spending. The Whole Health, Whole Communities: Dialogues to Reduce Rural Health Disparities symposium in Roanoke, Virginia, convened cross-sector leaders to identify reforms necessary to embed person-centered care into rural systems. Participants outlined staged reforms across governance, financing, workforce development, and data infrastructure. Priority actions include trauma-informed care expansion, payment redesign, sustainable community health worker funding, participatory research, and cross-sector coordination - advancing scalable, community-embedded Whole Health models to reduce rural disparities.