Seeking stories from rural residents

The BC Rural Health Network has been active in the media lately and we anticipate that this will increase in 2023. We are often asked for real life stories on how living rurally impacts you, your health and your wallet!

We recently did a round of media in regards to out of pocket expenses and the inequity in the cost of receiving care for rural residents. This campaign will continue into 2023 and a formal position paper is currently being created by our Implementation Committee. During this latest round of media we were asked to bring residents stories forward and although we had several situations we were aware of, people were not comfortable disclosing information to the press or were just not comfortable with public speaking or media interviews.

We are seeking stories and people willing to share them when we have a media opportunity. If you have an experience you are willing to share with us and you are willing to be interviewed when we have a media opportunity, we would be most grateful! Some of the things we would like to hear about:

• Travel challenges e.g. distance to care, weather impacts, public transport challenges, cost of travel, ability to travel in pain and any other travel related impacts on your health.
• End of life care e.g. inability to age in place, lack of supportive services, travel to support family members forced to seek care out of town.
• Loss of income challenges e.g. taking time off work to seek care, impacts on your life due to illness, impacts on your family, impacts on you supporting others seeking care.
• Child care challenges e.g. how child raising is impacted when seeking care, challenges in getting care for your children when living rurally,
• Maternity care challenges e.g. how living rurally has impacted having a family and giving birth, the costs, the health risks, the distance, the time away from home etc.
• Any other impactful stories that highlight the concerns of living rurally and getting basic health care services.

Thank you for sharing if you can! Please forward any stories that we can share with the public to info@bcruralhealth.org