Listening to the Patient: Women Veterans' Insights About Health Care Needs, Access, and Quality in Rural Areas.

Objectives: Many work to ensure that women veterans receive appropriate and timely health care, yet the needs of those living in rural areas are often ignored. This is a critical oversight given the multitude of reports documenting rural access problems and health disparities. Lacking this, we are unable to plan for and evaluate appropriate care for this specific group.

The impact of demographic differences on native veterans' outpatient service utilization.

Many Native veterans--including American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders (NHPI)--have served in the United States Armed Forces. Most of these veterans are eligible for medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but research examining the determinants of their service use is needed to inform policy and allocate appropriate resources for these unique groups. In a retrospective cohort study, we examined the impact of Native veterans' personal demographics on their outpatient utilization of VA-based primary care and mental health services.

Attitudes Toward Telemedicine in Urban, Rural, and Highly Rural Communities.

Introduction: The rate of telemedicine adoption using interactive video between patient and provider has not met expectations. Technology, regulations, and physician buy-in are cited reasons, but patient acceptance has not received much consideration. We examine attitudes regarding telemedicine to better understand the subjective definitions of its acceptability and utility that shape patients' willingness to use telemedicine.

Reaching out to older veterans in need: the Elko clinic demonstration project.

Context: The challenge of providing meaningful health care services to veterans living in rural communities is a major public health concern that involves redefining the traditional facility-based model of care delivery employed in urban areas.

Purpose: This paper describes the steps of a demonstration project, the Elko Telehealth Outreach Clinic. The clinic, located in Elko, Nevada, was created to meet the health care needs of veterans who expressed a desire for greater access to VA services.

The role of grief in dementia caregiving.

The literature examining issues of caregiver stress, burden,or depression has focused on the stress-process model of caregiving, which posits that there are characteristics inherent in dementia and in the course of caregiving for a person with dementia that can cause stress in the caregiver's life. A more recent literature has emerged that argues that issues of loss and grief play a significant role ina caregiver's ability to cope with the stressors of caregiving. This article reviews the caregiver stress and grief literatures,and proposes a conceptual model of dementia caregiving that outlines pathways of stress and grief in dementia caregiving.