S. Melinda Spencer

TL;DR: To examine what barriers rural elders report when accessing needed health care, including how they cope with the high cost of prescription medication, focus groups were conducted in rural West Virginia.

TL;DR: In order to provide better care to the aging population, continuing medical educational opportunities in geriatrics for practicing health care professionals in rural areas need to increase and the curriculum of all health care professional students should include a sufficient geriatric component.

TL;DR: It is suggested that American Indians are more functionally disabled than other racial/ethnic groups and have a marked need for future long-term care.

TL;DR: The American Indian respondents were more likely to be aware of and to have used HCBLTC programs compared to their white counterparts, and the most common way that the American Indian participants learned about HCBLtc programs was through health care referrals, while the mostcommon way for whites was through friends.

TL;DR: How differences make it necessary to reject the notion of universality when applying a public health approach is illustrated, to highlight the ways in which any individual aging population exists in a unique context that has important implications for public health and service delivery.