The Importance of Nature in the Well-Being of Rural Elders

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra S. Butler ◽  
Adrienne L. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Rural Environments ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Rural Elders

This article presents two independent studies examining the experiences of older adults aging in rural environments in the United States. In face-to-face interviews, study participants (n = 66 in study 1 and n = 8 in study 2) were asked what they like about aging in a rural area and what they found challenging. Interview transcripts were analyzed for recurring themes in each study and striking similarities were found with regard to the importance of nature or “aesthetic capital” to the well-being of the study participants. Primary themes emerging from study 1 data included peace, safety, beauty, space, and interacting with nature. The themes emerging from the second study included the world outside the window, traveling around by car, and longing for natural beauty. A negative theme that emerged from both studies related to the dearth of health and social services in rural areas. Implications of the studies' findings with regard to the value of nature in the lives of elders are discussed in relation to practice, policy, and planning.

Young People and Disadvantaged Environments in Affluent Countries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Visser
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Rural Environments

Many social scientists over the last decades have focused on the question of the impacts of poverty on people. Studies in this field primarily examine the effects of social, cultural, and economic resources and structural factors on the development, social outcomes, and well-being of an individual. In the last decades, scholarly interest has increasingly focused on poverty among children and adolescents (hereafter “young people”). Young people are seen as a nation’s future, which forms a reason for societal concern with their well-being and developmental outcomes. In addition, scholars increasingly acknowledge that poverty is multidimensional and heterogenous: the effects of poverty differ according to personal characteristics such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, or disability, but they are also exemplified by the disadvantaged environments in which young people find themselves, such as dysfunctional families, deprived neighborhoods, and low-quality schools. This article gives an overview of the most important works in the field of the effects of poverty and disadvantaged environments on young people (0–18 years of age). As the nature of poverty differs significantly between affluent countries and low-income developing countries, this review is focused on studies in the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Given the fact that disadvantage, and the different effects thereof on young people, can be approached from the perspectives offered by different social sciences, publications from geography, sociology, social work, anthropology, economics, and (environmental) psychology are included in this review. This article departs from the idea of ecological models, assuming that poverty impacts children within their various contexts such as the home, school, and neighborhood. After presenting general works on poverty among young people, attention is given to the impacts of disadvantages in home, neighborhood, and school environments. Most studies that are discussed in this review deal with disadvantage in urban areas, reflecting the focus of the overall literature in affluent countries. However, poverty and disadvantage also differ between urban and rural environments. Therefore, the article ends with an overview of literature on poverty among young people in rural areas.

Poisoned Earth

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Jones
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Green Business ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Start Ups

The chapter examines green business during the 1960s and 1970, decades of new environmental awareness. In organic food natural beauty, a number of commercially viable green businesses and brands began to be built, and distribution channels created. There was significant innovation in wind and solar energy in the wake of the first oil crises although they remained marginal in the energy industry. Green entrepreneurs still faced huge obstacles finding both capital and consumers. In the case of the capital-intensive solar energy business, the main solution was to sell start-ups to cash-rich oil companies. Green businesses clustered in hubs of environmental and social activism, such as Berkeley and Boulder in the United States, Allgäu in Germany, and rural areas of Denmark. These clusters enabled small firms to build skills and competences which could eventually be used to expand into more mainstream locations.

The Future of Social Work Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
Spencer James Zeiger
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Online Programs ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The Future ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Study Participants

Former social work educators, and social work educators standing on the threshold of The Next Chapter, have wisdom to share regarding the future of social work education. We must pay attention to their ideas; our profession is at stake. Topics covered in this chapter include doctoral preparation (with the growth of social work education programs in the United States and a large wave of social work educators retiring, attracting well-prepared new faculty has never been greater); online concerns (most study participants were reluctant to give online programs a ringing endorsement); and the need for increased content on aging (as baby boomers progress through their lifespan, and as life expectancy increases with medical advances, the number of older adults requiring social services will continue to rise).

Rural Public Transportation: Perceptions of Transit Managers, Directors of Area Agencies on Aging, and Elders

1996 ◽  
Vol 1557 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman S. J. Foster ◽  
Peter C. Damiano ◽  
Elizabeth T. Momany ◽  
Hermine T. McLeran
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Transit Use ◽  
Rural Elders

Transit systems in rural areas help elders maintain contact with social services, conduct business, and visit friends. Surveys of transit managers, area agency on aging (AAA) directors, and rural elders age 75 and over in Iowa were conducted in 1993 to determine if these groups believed that there is unmet need for transit among rural elders and to assess the groups' perceptions of transit service. Transit managers and AAA directors did believe that such unmet need exists and that it is caused largely by lack of information on the part of elders' and by agencies' difficulties in identifying elders in need. One-half of rural elders who did not use transit were unaware that it was provided. The level of knowledge among women was much higher in smaller towns than in larger communities. Elders who have actually used transit have a favorable opinion of it. Transit is seen as safe and dependable. Riders consider drivers to be courteous and few report that trips take too long. The level of satisfaction reported is somewhat lower when elders are asked about transit's flexibility, scheduling, and ease of use. Few riders believe that others need transit service more than they do or report that they would rather pay others to drive them than use transit. Nonusers were relatively indifferent to these issues, perhaps indicating less opposition to potential transit use than has often been supposed. Only a small fraction of riders would support general tax increases of $25 or $50 per year to increase transit service, although this response may reveal more about perceptions of taxes than about transit.

Urban-Rural Synergy Toward Human Well-Being

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-70
Author(s):  
Nikola Zoran Furundžić ◽  
Dijana Petar Furundžić ◽  
Aleksandra Krstić-Furundžić
Keyword(s):  
Preventive Medicine ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Rural Environments ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
New Challenges

The cities are characterized by the rapid development of technologies and the inevitable expansion, which requires looking at ways to address new challenges and overcome the problems that have arisen. Living conditions may vary in many ways, depending on where people live, but the advantages and disadvantages in terms of comfort of human life can be recognized in both urban and rural environments, as analysis of case studies shows. Factors that occur in both areas and affect human life, comfort, and health are presented. The positive effects of rural areas and the advantages that cities have in terms of preserving human health are discussed in this chapter. By comparing the good characteristics of the urban and rural environment, the goal is to indicate some postulates that can be applied in preventive medicine.

scholarly journals The Stress of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Beyond the Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samina Salim
Keyword(s):  
Research Productivity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
Loss Of Face ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Peer Experiences ◽  
American Society ◽  
The One

Background: The year 2020 will go down in modern history as the one ravaged by a pandemic, the one which humbled the entire world. From the richest and most advanced nations to the poorest and least developed it exposed all of our vulnerabilities. The loss of life, health disparities and economic adversities, aggravated by political and ideological tensions, added multiple layers of stress and anxieties to an already stressed American society. Methods: The educational institutions in the United States from the central to the local units demonstrated coherence in leadership, guided with flexibility and compassion, which paved the way for smooth operations. However, the anxiety among students and faculty on university and college campuses, is undeniable. In-person instruction was haulted. Research labs and officeswere locked down or operating with limited personnel Thus, the challenges to have timely instruction and to move the research enterprise forward have been enormous. Provided here is a perspective gathered from a literature search using PubMed and google with search words “COVID-19, stress, college students”, “COVID-19, stress, US graduate students”, and “COVID-19, stress, postdoc researchers”. Results: This article is an opinion piece, part personal and part peer experiences. It is presented in light of studies suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant mental stress and anxiety upon students and faculty members within the academy. Conclusion: Loss of face-to-face interactions as a result of virtual instruction, lack of in-person mentoring, and loss of research productivity has taken its toll on the mental health and well- being of the academic community. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the ingenuity of the human spirit has innovated solutions to catch up on research productivity and to pursue academic excellence.

scholarly journals Telepsychiatry

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rural Environments ◽  
Access And Quality

Numerous challenges have limited access to mental health services in rural areas. Some of these barriers have included transportation, number of providers, poverty, and lack of insurance. The purpose of this review was to identify and coalesce the benefits of telepsychiatry for adults living in rural communities in the United States to determine if telepsychiatry has improved access and quality of care. The methodology for this study was a literature review that followed a systematic approach. It was found that several studies supported that telepsychiatry has improved access and quality of care available in rural environments. Simultaneously, telepsychiatry in mental healthcare has not been utilized as it should in rural adult populations due to lack of access, an overall shortage of providers, and poor distribution of psychiatrists. While there are still barriers that prevent widespread utilization, telepsychiatry can improve mental health outcomes by linking rural patients to high-quality mental healthcare services that follow evidence-based care and best practices.

scholarly journals Development of cooperation in the energy sphere of organizational and economic socialization of entrepreneurial management in the rural area

Ekonomika APK ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 313 (11) ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Grygorii Kaletnik ◽  
Anna Diuk
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Energy Cooperation ◽  
Entrepreneurial Management ◽  
Economic Socialization

The purpose of the article is by theoretically and methodically, with empirical estimates, to characterize the foundations of the cooperation of development of organizational and economic socialization of entrepreneurial management in the rural energy sector. Research methods. Among the methods used: abstract-logical - to determine the nature and principles of organizational and economic socialization of entrepreneurial management, taking into account the factor of coordination in the agricultural sector; comparative analysis - to determine the organizational structure of business entities in the study area; prognostic - to assess the prospects for the development of energy cooperation in achieving energy well-being in rural development. Research results. Theoretical and methodological principles of organizational and economic socialization of entrepreneurial management in the rural areas are substantiated. The role of energy cooperatives in shaping the energy well-being of rural communities has been established. Scientific novelty. The methodical connection of organizational and economic socialization of entrepreneurship with cooperation as factors of balancing economic and social interests in the system of rural development is determined; priorities for improving relations in the system of social services; organizational conditions for intensifying the use of renewable energy sources in the formation of energy well-being in rural areas. Practical significance. The practical conditions and features of the development of cooperation in the energy sphere of organizational and economic socialization of entrepreneurial management in the rural areas are determined. Theoretical and methodological characteristics of the connection of energy cooperation with the formation of energy-efficient rural development, which practically involves the active participation of rural residents in the organization of self-sufficiency of energy resources through mechanisms of participation in creating and ensuring the functioning of energy cooperatives. It is proved that cooperation is an important structural mechanism for achieving energy efficiency. Tabl.: 1. Refs.: 24.

The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act Of 2006: Does It Rehabilitate?

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-80
Author(s):  
Anne Mariquit D. Oppus ◽  
Frances Mae C. Trabajo
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Rehabilitation Center ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Interview Methods ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Law ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

 This study was conducted to record the perception of the Children-in-conflict with the Law (CICL). The services assessed the following: Physical, Moral, Spiritual, Intellectual, and Social Well-being; it further assesses the effectiveness delivered by the RRCY and whether RA 9344 rehabilitates. The methods used are qualitative through interview methods on implementing the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 (RA 9344), as amended by RA 10630, at the Regional Rehabilitation Center for the Youth (RRCY) in Argao, Cebu.  The study participants were then identified as Children-in-conflict with the law (CICL) who come from the Province of Bohol. A researcher-made semi-structured questionnaire was used to guide the face-to-face interviews conducted and supported by a focused-group discussion. It was, however, a short-term interview with the participants, limited to the perception of the CICL, their parents, and the staff while the CICL were undergoing rehabilitation thereat. The study revealed the effectiveness of the services delivered by the RRCY and the narrative of the respondents, RA 9344 rehabilitates. Thus, continuity in the services rendered by the rehabilitation center and that of the community shall be reintegrated. Therefore, a Barangay-based Reintegration Program is recommended.

Urban and Rural Differences in Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in Later Life in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 073346482097252
Author(s):  
Na Sun ◽  
Cassandra L. Hua ◽  
Xiao Qiu ◽  
J. Scott Brown
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Growth Curve Analysis ◽  
Urban Residence ◽  
Latent Growth Curve Analysis ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

Objective: This research has two primary goals: to examine the relationship between urban residence and trajectories of depressive symptoms and to investigate whether this relationship differs by social isolation and loneliness. Method: Data are from 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 51+ ( n = 3,346 females and 2,441 males). We conduct latent growth curve analysis to predict both baseline and trajectories of depression based on urban or rural residency. Results: Residing in urban or rural areas is neither significantly associated with baseline nor the development of late-life depressive symptoms. For females, the relationship between urban residence and baseline depressive symptoms is explained by socioeconomic factors. Discussion: Findings of this study serve to better understand how social and geographic contexts shape long-term well-being of older adults.

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