Rural initiatives and health education needs.

In most rural areas today people are without access to health care.' Many rural communities lack physicians; other communities have only elderly doctors who must limit their practices. Many groups in such communities have used initiative and individualism in seeking answera to their primary health care problems, even as the availability of health services and access to care have worsened? Much community effort has gone toward attracting physicians into rural areas through construction of buildings, cash bonuses, state-supported education, and other means. All these have had minimal results. What has to happen? The vision of a comprehensive rural health care system has to become more widely known to rural people. The leadership for the development of such systems must come from local people since they must support it financially in its development, utilize its services, and operate primary care centers as community resources. A comprehensive health system that can serve all the health needs of all the people in an area must have three levels of care primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care. Except for emergency medical service, the most urgent needs in rural areas are in primary care services. This article will highlight problems and programs where health education is needed to improve health care in rural areas primary care, financing of health care, emergency health service, and personal health maintenance.