International Rural Aging Project

Provider Workshops

Providing Case Management and Long-Term Care in the Rural Context
Convener: Linda Redford, Kansas City, Kansas, USA
Director, Geriatric Education Center and the Rural Interdisciplinary Training Program at the Center on Aging, University of Kansas Medical Center, KUMC

Date Thursday, June 8
Time 1:30 – 6 p.m.
Location Room 203, Civic Center

Content

Rural settings present special complexities for the delivery and coordination of services to persons needing long-term care. Due to the overall aging of the population and the out-migration of the young from rural areas, many countries are experiencing increasing percentages of older persons in their rural communities. Not only are older persons more likely than the young to require multiple and continuing services, they are also less likely to have the ability or resources to attain services outside their home communities.

Case management has assumed a prominent role in many government and private sector human service programs for addressing such issues of access, as well as issues about quality, coordination and cost containment. This workshop will examine the strengths and limitations of case management in the service systems of various countries, with a major focus being the implementation and effectiveness of case management in rural areas. The factors that hamper and facilitate effective case management in rural areas will be explored. Models of case management that have proven effective in the rural environment will be discussed, as will educational approaches to preparing rural case managers, public policy and service system structures that support the case management model, and the role of technology in rural outreach and case monitoring. The rural implications of current efforts to standardize and improve the quality of case management through the development of standards and credentialing processes will also be discussed.

Objectives

• Compare and contrast the roles of case managers in rural verses urban areas. 

• Describe the characteristics of effective rural case management programs. 

• Discuss the social, political, and economic conditions under which case management programs are most likely to operate effectively. 

• Compare and contrast the characteristics of rural case management programs in three different countries. 

• Discuss the strengths and limitations of case management as a process for improving outcomes of care and controlling costs of care in rural communities. 

Presenters

Linda Redford, Kansas City, Missouri, US
Director, Geriatric Education Center (GEC) & Rural Interdisciplinary Training Program (RIT), Center on Aging, University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC); 

Share De Croix Bane, Kansas City, Missouri, US
Senior Research Associate, Center on Aging; Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, KUMC.

Michael MacLean, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Joan Quinn, Wethersfield, Connecticut, US

Michael Summers, Carlton, Australia
Coordinates & lectures, Graduate Diploma/Graduate Certificate in Case Management, School of Postgraduate Nursing, The University of Melbourne, Australia.