“Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find.” Terry Tempest Williams
I am dedicating this post today to all those who serve rural communities. This week I attended one of the best conferences in my thirty years in health care. The New England Rural Health Conference in Groton, Connecticut. I was surrounded by over 400 people who have committed their lives to supporting rural communities. These are stories that are often not on the news or written in the paper, but that doesn’t matter because we are not doing it for that reason. We are on the frontlines and know the challenges people in rural communities face, and we have committed to being the voice for the voiceless and working to turn hope into possibilities.
Many of us who have committed to serving our rural communities can often feel isolated. We wonder if the work we are doing has an impact. We work with limited resources and must be creative to support all those who need our help. We encounter roadblocks, detours, and are often asked to move mountains to get the resources we need to support the people in our communities. We are challenged with getting people the things they need like primary care doctors, dentists and reliable transportation. Our numbers may be small, but our needs are significant.
Rural communities have unique challenges as many of these towns have lost the mills and factories that were once the places people worked at till retirement. They supported generations of families and now with them gone it has had not only a financial impact on the communities but has also impacted the health of the people who live there. These communities are aging as young people move to urban areas to find work and opportunities.
We are data driven in this work, and the data can be overwhelming. When we see the challenges, we want to run a sprint, but change comes at a snail’s pace. Increased chronic illnesses like diabetes, increase mortality rates in cancer and cardiovascular disease, increasing overdose death and increasing alcohol use are impacting many in our rural communities. There are also social issues such as housing and homelessness, transportation, and isolation. These things have a significant impact on mental health in rural areas. Sometimes you want to throw your hands up and say I surrender.
Here in New England, we say no to the idea of giving up. It is why The New England Rural Health Conference is important. We get to hear the successes, we are around people who are facing the same challenges, and they are sharing ideas on how to solve the issues. You learn that you are not alone in this work, and you learn how important it is to connect to people with common challenges, and you can share stories, ideas, and even speak about what keeps you up at night. There were so many opportunities to learn in those two days, every hour packed with lessons and stories that you could take with you back home. But more important was building relationships with people you share a common goal with.
This was my first year at the conference. I was recognized as the Massachusetts Community Star this year. I shared the stage with 5 other community stars from the other New England states. It is very humbling to hear what people say about you. But what is most important to me is that all of us who do this work are community stars. Maybe we don’t get recognized on a stage, but our joy comes from the faces of the people we help. We do it because we see the beauty in what some say is broken. We give hope when all seems lost, and we continue to run over and run through the barriers put in front of us.
To all of you who serve our communities, I recognize you as Community Stars.
Charles Redd RN
Dignity Freedom Fighter
Dignity Freedom Fighter 