Small Rural Communities Research Articles

Climate Change in Rural Australia: Natural Hazard Preparedness and Recovery Needs of a Rural Community

Climate change has resulted in a worldwide increase in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events including bushfires. Previous research has shown that communities often do not engage in disaster preparedness, even when sufficient education and resources are provided. With the projected increase in natural disasters, preparedness is paramount, and more research is needed to gain an understanding into what impacts community preparedness in the face of climate change. This study investigated one rural Australian community’s preparedness for the 2019–2020 bushfires. Thirteen Australian adults who resided within a small rural community in New South Wales during the 2019–2020 bushfires participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Participants reported being unprepared for the 2019–2020 bushfires and that the community has started to prepare for future bushfires. However, they also described a belief in ‘climate cycles’ rather than climate change, limiting engagement in preparedness for future hazards. Participants also reported that they did not talk about the 2019–2020 bushfires, although described experiencing residual anxiety. Recommendations included support needed for rural communities to help with future preparedness efforts and mental health symptoms.

Tobacco use disparities in rural communities

This exploratory study described facilitators and barriers to reducing tobacco disparities in 2 small rural communities and identified ways to reduce tobacco use. This was a descriptive design using qualitative methods. We created a resource database for 2 rural Kentucky counties, using a Culture of Health Framework. We recruited 16 organizational stakeholders serving low-socioeconomic populations and conducted focus groups and key informant interviews. We also completed key informant interviews with 7 tobacco users. Lastly, we tailored Community Action Plans for each county based on the data and then solicited feedback from the key stakeholders. The 2 counties were similar in population size, but County A had fewer resources than County B, and the stakeholders expressed differences toward tobacco use and quitting. County A stakeholders talked most about the protobacco culture and that tobacco users accept the risks of smoking outweighing the benefits of quitting; they also expressed concerns about youth use and the influences of family, society, and industry. County B stakeholders described ambivalence about the health effects of use and quitting. County A's Action Plan identified an opportunity to build Community Health Worker-delivered tobacco treatment into a new school-based health center. County B's Action Plan focused on reaching tobacco users by providing incentives for participation and tailoring messages to different audiences. Tobacco control resources and stakeholder perspectives vary in small rural communities, implying a need for tailored approaches. Tobacco users in rural areas are a critical population to target with cessation resources.

Social Disability as Disaster: Case Studies of the COVID-19 Pandemic on People Living with Disabilities

Social disability is a process or event that significantly disrupts, paralyzes, or prevents the formation and/or sustaining of interpersonal social relations required for meeting human needs. When prolonged, the ‘disabling’ of essential human interrelationships can have a destructive impact. This is especially true in communities where people are highly interdependent and where individuals living with disabilities rely upon social relationships to prevent isolation and decline in overall wellbeing. Meanwhile, disaster response systems have developed to first rescue or protect individuals’ ‘bare life’ and immediate, bodily needs. We argue that these systems, intended to mitigate disaster, can exacerbate social disability as a kind of collateral damage. We explore this problem as it unfolded amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in two research sites: one located in rural, northern Scotland and another located in rural, Midwestern United States. The Scottish research focuses on experiences, causes and risks of social disability for adults living with disabilities within a small rural community, while the U.S. research focuses on emergence of and resistance to social disability among residents of a continuing care retirement community for 55+ aged adults. We conclude with implications and recommendations for disaster intervention and future research.

Observing the dynamics of urban growth of Al-Baha City using GIS (2006–2021)

This study observes and records land cover changes in Al-Baha to track urban growth. The study develops a schematic vision of urban mass's current and future shape and distribution and its growth to achieve sustainable urban development, reduce service and social differences between city areas, and integrate urban and rural areas. The study uses inductive methods to monitor urban developments, population growth, and land use through Al-Baha's structural schemes by extracting digital data from satellite imagery to survey historical land cover changes. The mapping software ArcGIS v10.8 processed these digital data and the final map compositions. Through this urban mass study, the research predicted city growth and development. Capabilities and functions must shape urban and rural-urban communities. The development must also consider the National Urban Development Strategy, the relative importance of rural-urban communities, and their expected functional role in influencing the development of small rural communities adjacent to them to reduce migration from rural areas near the city. The study highlighted changes in city land coverage. Al-Baha expanded from 1982 to 1995. Al-Baha's transformation from village to city accelerated, increasing its area from 31 km2 to 44 km2. Many villages beyond 40 were included in the decisions. From 2006–2021, the city's area grew 221%. It increased from 60 km2 to 133 km2 in an urban area, indicating false urban growth. The study stressed the importance of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS). The study recommends urban development in suitable areas because agricultural development is not feasible, especially in the northeast. Land use changes should be prevented by planning regulations because these agricultural areas are essential. Helping urban development move away from agricultural areas, especially on the eastern axis, is crucial. Create new urban centers along Al-Baha's western cliff to attract residents and relieve pressure. Limited linear expansion, especially in the northeast, and more expansive urbanization are also significant. Maps should also show when the Al-Baha region's expansionary scope changed and the urban boundaries that had to be reached by a specific time while development plans were efficiently monitored.

Exploring changes in urban, small town and rural policing during the COVID-19 pandemic: does urbanicity matter?

PurposeWe explore the relationship between urbanicity and police officers’ perceptions of changes in their reactive and proactive work during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachUsing the 2021 survey of 1,262 Croatian police offices (436 police officers from a large urban community, 471 police officers from small towns and 155 from rural communities), we examine the perceived changes in their reactive activities (e.g. responses to the calls for service, arrests for minor crimes) and proactive activities (e.g. community policing activities, directed patrols) during the peak month of the pandemic compared to before the pandemic.FindingsThe majority of police officers in the study, regardless of the size of the community where they lived, reported no changes before and during the pandemic in reactive and proactive activities. Police officers from urban communities and small towns were more likely to note an increase in domestic violence calls for service. Police officers from urban communities were also more likely than the respondents from small towns and rural communities to report an increase in the responses to the disturbances of public order. Finally, police officers from small communities were most likely to observe a change in the frequency of traffic stops during the pandemic.Originality/valueThis study is the first one to explore the differences in perceptions of COVID-19-related changes in reactive and proactive police activities in a centralized police system.

Introduction to Special Issue: Placemaking Beyond Cities.

This special issue of Culture Unbound directs attention beyond cities, to small towns and rural communities, and the practices taking place there. Referring to a previous special issue on ‘Rural Media Spaces’ from 2010, this special issue revisits the notion of ‘the rural’ versus ‘the urban’ through the concept of placemaking and geomedia. In a mediatized society, placemaking practices cannot be understood without simultaneously understanding different media practices and how they affect place. A geomedia perspective on placemaking beyond cities, therefore, brings new perspectives on media representations of small towns and rural communities, related to the materialization of space and how we engage with and perceive the world. Geomedia also includes a focus on layers of digitalization and new media in the relations between place and practice.
 The issue brings together researchers from a wide range of subjects, and the articles in this volume address empirical examples from different rural places and small towns in Sweden and internationally. Taken together, a manifold of issues relating to media and placemaking beyond cities are covered, for example, inclusion/exclusion, representation, resistance, community building, belonging, and identification.

Multi-objective optimization and long-term performance evaluation of a hybrid solar-hydrogen energy system with retired electric vehicle batteries for off-grid power and heat supply

This paper presents a novel off-grid hybrid renewable energy system integrated with hydrogen production and retired electric vehicle (EV) batteries for combined power and heat supply to a small rural community. The system consists of photovoltaic (PV) panels, evacuated tube solar collectors, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), an alkaline electrolyzer, compressed hydrogen storage tanks, and reused lithium-ion batteries from EVs. A new battery model is developed in the Transient System Simulation Program (TRNSYS) to capture the capacity degradation of retired batteries. A two-stage energy management strategy is proposed to regulate power flow and maximize solar energy utilization. The system is optimized for minimum power supply disruption, hot water supply disruption, energy waste, and annualized costs over a 20-year lifetime using a multi-objective NSGA-II algorithm coupling MATLAB and TRNSYS. Optimization results reveal tradeoffs between the competing objectives. Dynamic simulations show the water tank temperature fluctuates between 20 and 100 °C with mean values dropping slightly in later years due to battery degradation. Energy waste from components rises in later years for the same reason. The replacement interval for a retired EV battery module is around 2.5 years. The integrated system proves feasible for off-grid combined power and heat supply using solar energy and retired EV batteries as storage, though battery degradation impacts long-term performance.

Buyout programme experiences and perspectives of local public officials in eastern North Carolina

ABSTRACT Eastern North Carolina (ENC) has been buffeted by compound coastal water events (CCWEs) making residential buyouts, that seek to move households and communities out of flood risk areas, an important flood hazard mitigation tool. However, little is known about the experiences of local public officials implementing buyout programmes in rural coastal regions such as ENC in the United States. Using data from focus group interviews conducted with 24 emergency managers, planners, elected officials, and other public officials, we examine residential buyout programmes in ENC from the perspective of local public officials. According to ENC officials, while property attachment, social ties in the community, and financial considerations are key drivers for residential property owners in rural ENC considering a buyout, the governance of buyout programmes remains a complex lengthy process lacking adequate communication and leads to uncertainties for local public officials and property owners during the buyout. The uncertainty can be temporal, economic, or related to housing security. ENC officials recommend providing alternative mitigation options for small rural communities and simplifying and streamlining the buyout process along with improving communication throughout the buyout cycle to mitigate uncertainties in the buyout programme.

Chronic shedding of a SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant in wastewater

BackgroundCentral Michigan University (CMU) participated in a state-wide SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring program since 2021. Wastewater samples were collected from on-campus sites and nine off-campus wastewater treatment plants servicing small metropolitan and rural communities. SARS-CoV-2 genome copies were quantified using droplet digital PCR and results were reported to the health department.ResultsOne rural, off-campus site consistently produced higher concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 genome copies. Samples from this site were sequenced and contained predominately a derivative of Alpha variant lineage B.1.1.7, detected from fall 2021 through summer 2023. Mutational analysis of reconstructed genes revealed divergence from the Alpha variant lineage sequence over time, including numerous mutations in the Spike RBD and NTD.ConclusionsWe discuss the possibility that a chronic SARS-CoV-2 infection accumulated adaptive mutations that promoted long-term infection. This study reveals that small wastewater treatment plants can enhance resolution of rare events and facilitate reconstruction of viral genomes due to the relative lack of contaminating sequences.

Labour migration of young women from the village to the capital in Bulgaria:A case study of woman servantry in Vakarel.

The article is devoted to the maiden servantry in Bulgaria - a relatively late social phenomenon, but with important cultural and social consequences. It is also an indicator of the early modernization of Bulgarian society in the first half of the twentieth century. Using the example of Vakarel in Middle Western Bulgaria, the authors define servantry as a social mediator, facilitating the spread of urban culture and European models in the Shopluk villages around the capital Sofia. The emergence and development of female servantry as an enduring and sustainable social practice charts a path of change in marriage strategies and family patterns in a small rural community and thus in society as a whole. Gradually, from an escape from the adverse socio-economic factors and the harsh life in the village, temporary employment as a servant in the home of a wealthy family in the big city became an important moment in the young girl's growth and socialization, a condition for successful realization of family strategies in the rural environment. As a social phenomenon, servanthood has remained positively valued in the collective memory of the locals as part of the oral stories told within the family.

Socio-Onomastics of Distorted Names: Nicknaming Practices among Punjabi Speakers in Pakistan

Due to hierarchical power relations and the difficulty of confronting others or expressing disdain explicitly in small rural communities, nicknames and spoiled names can be an overt avenue for venting displeasure, ridiculing, expressing social inequality, asserting superiority, conveying judgment, or warning against improper behaviour. The study focuses on how native Punjabi speakers in rural Punjab, Pakistan, distort names to express disdain, rage, affection, or frankness towards people in their presence or absence. Distorted names used both overtly (in the person’s presence) or secretly have been collected through a questionnaire filled in by 22 participants belonging to 22 villages in Punjab, Pakistan. Socio-cultural implications of those names have also been investigated and discussed. The author shows that the boundary between distorted names and nicknames is indistinct. This applies to both their formal features, semantic and pragmatic properties. Speakers not only morphologically distort the formal names but also use the names of castes, animals, physical attributes, and professional titles as address forms or referential expressions. Although distorted names generally offend the referent, they, like nicknames, can be used in both positive and negative contexts. The article describes the main motivational patterns of distorted names, similar to those usually pointed out for nicknames, and focuses mainly on their pragmatic features as noted in the metalinguistic comments of the respondents. Though the use of such naming labels may display quite universal regularities, the socio-cultural situation of the caste-based traditional rural communities of Punjab brings its own specifics to the way distorted names and nicknames are used in the area under study.

Wszystkie nasze strachy – w stronę ekspresji tożsamości w kontekście bezreligijnego chrześcijaństwa

The article is an attempt to combine film and theological thoughts in relation to the film Wszystkie nasze strachy, in which the protagonist is modeled on the contemporary Polish visual artist Daniel Rycharski. His declarations, experience, and attitude confirm the validity of using the tropes related to the elements of the concept of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity for analyzing the film. The concept provides arguments that expand the possibility to consider the film and the protagonist’s creation in the perspective of the postmodern identity discourse with the contents that correspond with the phenomena and processes inscribed in the postsecular tendencies. The interpretations presented in the article take into account the context of non-heteronormativity and the manifestations of homophobia in a small rural community presented in the story, and also focus on the category of relationality, contemplativeness, identification, and movement, as well as the antinomy of religion and faith and Christocentrism.

My Experience Building a Water System in a Small Rural Community in the Dominican Republic

Clean water is vital for physical, social, and mental health, however, water insecurity is a public health threat for many countries. Sabana Larga is a rural community made up of approximately 230 families located in the province of Dajabon on the Northwest region of the Dominican Republic. Building a new water system has been a priority for the community for many years, however the reason for the delay in the process is the lack of funds and assistance in building such a water system. In 2016, as a Peace Corps volunteer living in the community, I asked the Saint Cloud Rotary club for financial support to build a new water system. The objective of this paper is to share my experience of building a water system in a rural community in the Dominican Republic with the Saint Cloud Rotary Club, the Dajabon Rotary Club, local engineers, and the local community. Between April 2017 and June 2017, the new water system in Sabana Larga was successfully implemented. The water system improved access to clean and safe drinking water for all families, leading to a healthier community and better quality of life. Many lessons were learned throughout the process including the importance of community involvement, understanding local customs and traditions, establishing a Water Committee, and gaining various skills.

Settlement location and school size as determinants of subjective well-being and behavioral attitudes among adolescents

BACKGROUND: Empirical data on the effect of infrastructural and geographical factors on the subjective well-being of residents of small urban and rural communities are scarce.
 AIM: To identify indicators of subjective well-being among adolescents, as well as their behavioral attitudes and subjective assessments of the school environment.
 MATERIAL AND METHODS: We analyzed data collected from 1164 respondents residing in 25 rural and urban settlements across Siberia and the European part of Northern Russia between 2016 and 2018. The Cronbachs alpha values for the dependent variables ranged from 0.654 to 0.811. The variables used to differentiate the comparison groups included the school size, the distance of the settlement from the regional centers infrastructure, and its geographic location in relation to the Arctic zone.
 RESULTS: Various characteristics of the school environment demonstrated the effect of differentiating variables. These characteristics included the friendliness within the school environment, the attitudes of teachers, the preparedness for self-defense, and the attitudes towards the use of psychoactive substances and illegal behavior. The attitudes towards the use of psychoactive substances and the readiness for self-defense were particularly sensitive to differentiating variables.
 CONCLUSION: The results of this study can be used to develop solutions that effectively manage the risks associated with the social and personal development of adolescents residing in small urban and rural settlements within sparsely populated regions of the Russian Federation.

Outcomes of rural generalist internship training in Victoria, Australia.

Victoria, Australia commenced its first Rural Community Internship Training program in 2012 to support the development of rural generalist (RG) doctors. These general practitioners have additional skills to work at a broad scope to deliver the range of primary care and additional specialist services that communities need. Unlike most internships, which are wholly hospital-based and delivered mostly within larger metropolitan and regional centres, this RG internship training model involves completing general practice experience in smaller rural communities working with RGs and visiting specialists. This study aimed to explore the characteristics and satisfaction of doctors who participate in RG internship training in Victoria and their workforce outcomes. Between October and November 2021, a retrospective 10-minute anonymous survey invitation was sent to all contactable interns (n=222) who had completed/were completing the RG internship training (2012-2021). The survey was co-designed with RG internship managers and other stakeholders of a statewide evaluation advisory group, informed by the latest evidence regarding RG medicine and rural training predictors, and outcomes of interest. Participants completed the survey using Microsoft Forms, with three invitations circulated to an up-to-date email address maintained by the internship program. Collected data were analysed descriptively, by subgroup, to explore training pathway outcomes by region, training stage and specialty choice. Workforce distribution outcomes were defined in line with objectives of the program and predetermined indicators of RG scope. Results were compared with the benchmarks of rural workforce training outcomes in Australia using recent research. There were 59 participants (27% response rate); 81% were in postgraduate years 3-7. Respondents included 54% male, 17% rurally bonded, 39% of rural origin, 34% having had more than 3 months rural undergraduate training and 48% doing RG training where they previously did undergraduate training. All were satisfied/very satisfied with the RG training and 61% were working in general practice (excluding the prevocational group). Overall, 40% were currently working in the same rural region as their internship (including three who were currently interns), 56% continued to complete some prevocational training in the same region as their RG internship, while 20% had gone on to be currently based in smaller rural communities (Modified Monash Model locations 4-7) and 44% to be working part-time in smaller rural communities. Overall, 42% self-identified as working as an RG and nearly all (97%) met at least one of the key indicators of extended (RG) scope. In all areas the RG internship outcomes were better than the national benchmarks from published evidence about rural training. This study provides evidence from doctors up to 9 years after completing their RG internship. Compared with industry benchmarks, the RG internships attract rurally intentioned and rurally experienced doctors who may be likely to remain in the same rural region as their undergraduate rural medical training and continue their postgraduate training in the same region. They were all satisfied with RG internship training, had high propensity to follow a general practice career and work at broad scope in smaller communities. Importantly, they intended to stay in the region where they trained. This suggests RG internship programs are a positive intervention for promoting an RG workforce.

Proposal of an Agricultural Vulnerability Stochastic Model for the Rural Population of the Northeastern Region of Brazil

Agriculture is the world’s main economic activity. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this activity is expected to be impacted by drought. In the Northeast region of Brazil (NEB), most agricultural activity is carried out by small rural communities. Local socio-economic data were analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques in this study to determine agricultural sensitivity to drought events (SeA) and agricultural vulnerability to drought extremes (VaED). The climate data used to develop the risk factor (Rdrought) were the drought indicator with the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and the average number of drought disasters from 1991 to 2012. Conditional probability theory was applied to determine agricultural vulnerability to drought extremes (VaED). Characterization of the risk of agricultural drought using the proposed methodology showed that the rainy season presents high risk values in the central region, covering areas of the states of Ceará, Piauí, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, as well as all areas of the semi-arid region. The risk ranged from high to medium. The results also indicated that part of the south of Bahia and the west of Pernambuco have areas of extreme agro-climatic sensitivity. Consequently, these states have an extreme degree of climate vulnerability during the region’s rainy season.

Development, implementation, and evaluation of a local community-based ophthalmology sentinel surveillance system in a remote rural area in Japan.

Solid and sensitive infectious disease surveillance systems need to be developed and implemented to prevent and control epidemics. Although statutory national infectious disease surveillance systems have been developed in many countries, some challenges remain, such as their limited timeliness, representativeness, and sensitivity, as well as the fact that they cannot capture all local outbreaks that occur in small communities. To overcome these limitations, local community-based infectious disease surveillance systems that meet local needs and can operate with constrained resources need to be developed, especially in remote and rural low-resource areas. This study aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a voluntary and unique local community-based ophthalmology sentinel surveillance system in Isa city (OSSS-Isa), a remote rural area in Japan. For the development of OSSS-Isa, one hospital in Isa city assumed a leading role and developed a network with all medical institutions - 20 hospitals and clinics in the local community, including two ophthalmology clinics - as sentinel reporting sites. Surveillance was conducted on a weekly basis from Monday to Sunday. The collection, aggregation, and reporting of the surveillance data were implemented promptly on the same day, Monday, using a paper-based form and fax. For the evaluation of OSSS-Isa, the study followed the updated guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to select the evaluation criteria and develop a questionnaire. The questionnaires were then distributed to 20 hospitals and clinics, with the responses evaluated on a five-point Likert scale. For the implementation of OSSS-Isa, the system issued alerts twice to the networked hospitals and clinics when signs of an increase in the prevalence of a target infectious eye disease appeared in Isa city. After the alerts, the number of cases decreased in the community. Regarding the evaluation survey, physicians from 18 hospitals and clinics responded to the questionnaire (response rate 90%). In contrast to flexibility, more than 75% of the respondents gave high ratings to simplicity, data quality, acceptability, timeliness, and stability in evaluating OSSS-Isa, with the mean score for these evaluation criteria higher than 3.67. The present results indicate that OSSS-Isa has high simplicity, data quality, acceptability, timeliness, and stability, which is highly embedded with the local healthcare providers in Isa city. OSSS-Isa contributed to the early and accurate detection of signs of infectious eye disease outbreaks emerging in a small remote rural local community. The success factors seem to include its simple well-designed implementation methods, good external factors, and active human factors suited to the characteristics of the small remote rural community. The OSSS-Isa initiative appears to be a meaningful practical example of successful health advocacy by healthcare providers by developing a system at the local social level while going beyond the boundaries of routine medical practice. If voluntary small-scale surveillance systems can complement statutory large-scale ones and work together locally, nationally, and internationally, it might be possible to detect small, unusual happenings that occur in the community, such as emerging infectious diseases, and thereby help avert global outbreaks.

Investigating Spectrum Allocation Policies to Accommodate New Entrants in the Market: A Case Study of South Africa

One of the goals of the telecommunications industry is to provide universal connectivity to its consumers. Achieving this goal is highly dependent on the allocation of radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The RF spectrum refers to the frequencies assigned to diverse services such as mobile, fixed, and satellite services. These allocations are regulated by international, regional, and local authorities. Countries across the globe have embarked on the journey to transform their RF spectrum allocation policies to be more inclusive and hybrid in nature. Such changes in some countries, have enabled new entrants and incumbent operators to provide low-cost connectivity into small rural communities, bridging the digital divide gap. Due to current policies by some regulators and perceived anti-competitive laws, new entrants and small operators find it difficult to penetrate the telecommunications market in South Africa. To address this challenge, the overall and ongoing study, proposes an alternative and inclusive framework for universal coverage and low-cost connectivity that accommodates both incumbent and new entrant operators in South Africa. To achieve this aim, a qualitative desktop research approach was used to analyze publicly available information, including journal articles, RF spectrum policy documents from various countries, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) documents and other academic sources. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing discussions regarding the policy on the allocation of RF spectrum. As this is an ongoing study, preliminary findings indicated that auctions remain a popular RF spectrum allocation model of choice, despite being perceived by some scholars as less competitive and inflexible. The final study findings, which would be in a subsequent research paper, aim to develop a new RF spectrum framework that may help achieve universal coverage and low-cost connectivity in South Africa.

Decision Making for Knowledge Management in the Tequila Sector: A Fuzzy Logic Model

Knowledge management creates value for organizations, allowing them to be more innovative, productive, and competitive if that knowledge is used appropriately. Through this management, vital information is created and disseminated systematically and efficiently, and at the same time, knowledge learning is adopted, transformed, shared, and applied. This research analyzes decision-making for knowledge management in a mature low-tech sector, such as Tequila in Mexico. At the same time, it generates a predictive model of knowledge management that allows innovation in this sector by combining knowledge of modern technologies and ancestral knowledge in manufacturing the product, along with providing support to public policymakers and decision-makers to support small producers and rural communities. The methodological strategy used is an expert system through fuzzy logic, starting from a data set based on the patterns found in a Bayes network. The results show that the most relevant variables in decision-making for knowledge management in the Tequila sector are modern technologies, ancestral knowledge, and the Denomination of Origin. Under the above, it could be inferred that the ancestral knowledge variable is the most influential in achieving high values in managing knowledge management -the output variable preserving the value of a product with a designation of origin.

Māori preferences and practices in systemic health and social service collaborative practice

In the field of mental health and addictions, there is a lack of research that acknowledges or considers Indigenous needs, preferences, and approaches to the design, development and maintenance of collaborative health and social initiatives in rural communities. This study presents a Kaupapa Māori (Indigenous Māori research approach) qualitative case study in a small rural community. The study focused on three groups involved within service collaboration. These included 10 individuals who were identified as Indigenous community leaders; 10 individuals experiencing substance use and related problems; 12 family members; and two focus groups involving 21 health and social service practitioners working within this community. The study findings present a dynamic whānau (families) and rural community-centred model of collaboration. This model reflects a continuum of collaboration that incorporates service users, their whānau, and culture as core components. The key barriers and enablers to collaboration across the continuum are discussed.