Obtaining Care: Access to Health Care Services and the Use of Self-Care Practices among Poor Families in the Rural Northwest
The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development
02/01/98 - 1/31/00
Cathy D. Kassab, Research Associate, Institute for Policy Research and
Evaluation
Deborah B. Preston, Associate Professor of Nursing
The study responded to the special needs of poor families, particularly those who provide care for children, by examining the problems they face in caring for themselves when ill and/or gaining access to health care providers. We compared their strategies for obtaining both professional care and self-care, family's experiences with and perceptions of the local health care delivery system, and the consequences of illness for the family.
This project increased awareness of what poor families with children do when someone is sick and how these families interact with the local health care system, which aspects of the local health care system facilitate access, as well as the types of barriers affecting residents' interaction with professional health care providers. Because state and national health care policies are constantly changing, it is important to have a better understanding of the potential consequences of various policies on this vulnerable population's ability to gain access to needed health care services.