The 8th Annual Rural Health Conference -
Rural Self-Reliance: Empowering People
Click here to download conference workshop presentations!

Thanks to the involvement and support of our extensive California rural community, the 8th Annual Rural Health Conference was a major success this year! The 2008 Conference hosted over 180 attendees, exhibitors and speakers in Sacramento, CA from December 1-3. The title and theme for the conference, Rural Self-Reliance, Empowering People, set the stage for three days of workshops, speakers, meetings and advocacy opportunities that embodied the rural spirit of community and caring. The conference strived to celebrate and acknowledge achievements in improving and enhancing health in rural communities, as well as provide opportunities for advocacy and skills-building to promote further advancements in health for rural areas.

Sustainability was an important concept this year in light of the budget constraints and reimbursement issues many rural health providers continue to face. CSRHA's Advocacy Committee is in the process of planning opportunities to educate policy makers and opinion leaders about the critical importance of preserving and investing in rural healthcare as part of an overall state economic strategy. Though the challenges continue to grow, so do the opportunities, and the commitment of rural people shone brightly as they gathered in Sacramento to discuss and move forward on the complex issues that influence rural health in California.

The Policy and Legislative Affairs Day of the conference began with an insightful keynote presentation by A.G. Kawamura, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, on the link between our statewide food system and the health of our rural communities. The day ended with the Legislative Town Hall Meeting, where attendees explored, with legislative representatives, senators and assemblypersons from a diversity of California districts, policy avenues to address unique rural health needs and issues as well as upcoming 2009 budget concerns. Senator Roy Ashburn exclaimed that aside from cutting services and raising taxes there is another way to improve the state budget – eliminating waste:

“One of the things I would challenge you to do after leaving this conference is to go back and list all of the nightmares you’ve encountered with state agencies and get them to your representatives, so that we can take them into the Budget Committee…because there is a lot of waste and inefficiency in state government that we should be able to cut out, and it’s in crisis times that you can actually get it done.”

All of the panelists during the town hall meeting stressed the importance of the California State Rural Health Association for providing a solid, unified voice towards advocating for healthy changes in the legislature. The voice of rural health does not only need to be strong, but stronger than that of special interest groups and others.

The conference featured a number of educational workshops on important issues such as children's health, CMS updates, finances and funding, and telemedicine. Powerpoint presentations from the conference can be found and downloaded by clicking here. Along with the workshop slides, we also have available the slides that accompanied our keynote presentation by Martin C. Helldorfer, and which accompanied the State Affairs Update by Sam Willburn of the State Office of Rural Health.

The poster session was also a popular attraction, with six rural researchers present to share their findings. CSRHA was pleased to award "best poster" of the 2008 conference to Jessica VanArsdale, MD, MPH of the California Center for Rural Policy for her poster titled The Rural Health Information Survey: Rural Data for Rural Policy.

Lastly, CSRHA would like to send a heartfelt “thank you” to all of the conference attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and speakers without whom this event would not have been possible. We received a great deal of positive feedback on this year’s conference, and will also use your comments to refine next year’s premiere rural health event for California. We look forward to continue working with our members and supporters to make 2009 the most promising year for rural California. All the best for the New Year!  Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to follow-up or discuss any aspect of the 2008 or upcoming 2009 rural health conference.

We can't forget to mention the winners of our much anticipated rural photo contest. This year's awards went to:

Doreen Dekens for Baby Danielle
Sue Graue for Roping
John Redmond for Quincy Back Roads

Congratulations to this year's winners!

Article posted on 1/6/08