Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “A mentally ill person should not be treated for the disease in an emergency room. Or sitting in a jail. But that is what often happens in rural Minnesota, where there are not enough health care professionals such as psychiatrists to treat them. And there are not enough psychiatric hospital beds even if the ...

EXCERPT: “State lawmakers joined members of the renewable energy industry Thursday to tout a new report about clean energy jobs in Minnesota and to call for a higher state energy standard. Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, together with Sens. Karin Housley, R-St. Mary’s Point, and Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, gave a news conference with Clean Energy ...

EXCERPT: “Small-town hospitals and clinics may not have all the bells and whistles of their big-city counterparts, but they offer something patients often cannot find in the cities: quarterbacks. ‘You have a quarterback here,’ said Dr. Heidi Korstad, sitting in the cafeteria of Bigfork Valley, a sprawling medical complex of hospital, clinic, nursing home and ...

EXCERPT: “Some 900 homes on the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation will soon gain something that 80 percent of U.S. residents already take for granted—home access to high-speed Internet service. Thanks to two $3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grants, plus an additional $2.2 million investment from the tribe, some 160 miles of ...

EXCERPT: “Rural hospitals in the U.S. face big challenges staffing their obstetric units with well-trained nurses due to tight budgets, employment competition with urban hospitals, and low birth volumes. A new study from the School of Public Health shows that many rural hospitals are solving the problem through creative staffing approaches that take advantage of ...

EXCERPT: “For the roughly five million young Americans who find themselves both unemployed and not in school, those living in rural communities face a unique set of challenges. Transportation is a huge issue for those who live hours away from the nearest resources, and jobs remain scarce in local economies that have seen unemployment persist for ...

EXCERPT: “The Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program has a new strategy in delivering workforce services: bringing the program to the people. Over the past year, the nonprofit has implemented a mobile workforce program to offer services to job seekers in Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Hubbard and Lake of the Woods counties. The mobile office concept includes ...

EXCERPT: “Our state’s demographic center published a report that helps clarify the complex relationships among Greater Minnesota counties, cities and towns of all sizes. Remarkably innovative, they studied not just where people live but the relationships among cities and towns — how people live and work across city and county boundaries. They group us as living ...

EXCERPT: “(Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Ed) Ehlinger spoke with members of the Southwest Health and Human Services board on Wednesday morning, before meeting with a group of community members in the park. Ehlinger said Minnesota is the fourth healthiest state in the nation, and it has had some positive traits — like a willingness to invest ...