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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Hospice and palliative care

Evidence-Based Examples

Project ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends)

Updated/reviewed February 2024

  • Need: To enhance palliative care access to rural patients with advanced cancer or heart failure and their family caregivers.
  • Intervention: Project ENABLE consists of: 1) an initial in-person palliative care consultation with a specialty-trained provider and 2) a semi-structured series of weekly, phone-delivered, nurse-led or palliative care coach/navigator sessions designed to help patients and their caregivers enhance their problem-solving, symptom management, and coping skills.
  • Results: Patients and caregivers report higher quality of life and lower rates of depression and (caregiver) burden.

Effective Examples

Care for Our Elders/Wakanki Ewastepikte

Updated/reviewed June 2023

  • Need: To provide Lakota elders with tools and opportunities for advance care planning.
  • Intervention: An outreach program in South Dakota helps Lakota elders with advance care planning and wills by providing bilingual brochures and advance directive coaches.
  • Results: Care for Our Elders saw an increase in the number of Lakota elders understanding the differences between a will and a living will and the need to have end-of-life discussions with family and healthcare providers.

Other Project Examples

HopeWest

Updated/reviewed July 2023

  • Need: To provide accessible and affordable services to address the challenges associated with aging, serious illness, and grief across rural western Colorado.
  • Intervention: A nonprofit, community-sustained healthcare model was created to provide the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), hospice care and palliative care, as well as grief support services for individuals of all ages.
  • Results: Since 1993, HopeWest has grown to serve more than 3,000 people annually across five counties in western Colorado.

Garrett County Regional Cancer Patient Navigator Program

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed March 2020

  • Need: Comprehensive cancer services for residents of an 8-county, 3-state area in Appalachia.
  • Intervention: Using a Cancer Patient Navigation Tool Kit, a Maryland acute care facility led a multidisciplinary collaboration that provided the area's patients with expanded cancer treatment services.
  • Results: In addition to several new cancer-related programs, expanded services are now available for cancer patients, families, and cancer survivors.

For examples from other sources, see: