Our vision
Why was the Rural Health Compass created?
In today’s rapidly evolving world, rural communities often find themselves left unheard in the places where decisions are crafted. These communities frequently face significant hurdles in accessing essential healthcare, social care, and other public services, leading to adverse impacts on their overall well-being.
Consider this: within the European Union alone 137 million individuals reside in rural areas, constituting a substantial 30% of the entire population. This rural population is also older and has more health and care needs, with fewer education and employment opportunities and fewer resources available to them. Rural Health Compass is aiming to bridge the gap between rural health and policy-making to improve the health and wellbeing of rural communities. We envision a future with rural communities that are thriving and built with the wellbeing of their people in mind.
Our mission is to amplify the voice of rural communities and help them achieve equitable access to vital services. Rural Health Compass is dedicated to making a positive impact on the lives of those living in rural areas across Europe.
Open Call for Rural Case Studies
We invite you to submit a case study about the work that you have been doing in your local communities. We are interested in the local innovation and solutions that are being implemented. We want to learn about your successes but also about your failures. Things that did not go well and the reasons why can be particularly powerful tools for learning and for future innovation.
Submission deadline: 15th August 2025
Further guidance on how to formulate your case study can be found here.
Send your case study to: ruralhealthcompass@gmail.com
The Rural Road to Health Podcast
A podcast about rural health, rural health careers and rural communities. This podcast explores how to build healthy rural communities and improve rural health equity. Through interviews with guests learn about rural health in different parts of the world, exploring rural health concepts, and discovering rural health innovations.
Created and hosted by Dr Veronika Rasic, a family doctor and the founder of Rural Health Compass.
Join the Rural Health Equity Chat Community
This is a growing, free to access, online community with over 90 members.
We meet on the third Tuesday of the month for an hour to discuss rural health equity topics, share experiences and learn from each other. It is open to people working in public or private organizations, local government, health and social care, public health, researchers, rural citizens and anyone interested in learning more about rural and remote places.
To receive event summaries, email notifications of upcoming events and join the conversation, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/LxS2MTmm9tTbYehC9
Rural Health Compass is developing a training program for rural clinicians, community groups and organizations to help them develop a better understanding of health policy and how to advocate for change to tackle health inequities at local, regional and national level.
Help us to develop training that is relevant and useful to you by completing our Health Policy Advocacy Training Assessment Tool and receive a 40% discount on the programme when it is launched in the second half of 2025.
Interested in how Rural Health Compass can support you?
