Rural and Metropolitan Community Health: Celebrating the Strengths

Abstract

The paper outlines the strengths, similarities and differences of metropolitan and rural community health sectors. Case studies are used to look at the history of community health in South Australia, its current status is described and some future directions are proposed. Perspectives are drawn from the authors' collective experiences. Rural and metropolitan community health services in South Australia have developed from different models since they were established in the 1970s. Rural community health services have invariably been established as entities within hospitals and health services, although metropolitan community health services have generally been established as stand alone facilities independent of the acute sector. To illustrate this, two case studies are used to demonstrate the evolution of metropolitan and rural community health services.