USA-Mexico Border Health Web Site Launched
Jan 26, 2006 -- Federal health officials today launched a new web-based resource for residents along the U.S.-Mexico border and others seeking information on health and human services for border communities. To view press release, visit http://www.raconline.org/news/news_details.php?news_id=3817
What is the USA-Mexico Border Health Web Site?
With funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP), this web site has been developed to provide assistance on funding and information resources to U.S. – Mexico Border health grantees and interested parties. Specifically, the project has been established to assist individuals with locating and competing for funding opportunities in order to address health care needs in their communities. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Border Health Project is managed through the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP). ORHP facilitates intra-agency border health activities that cut across the bureaus and offices of HRSA. ORHP uses the following definition of the U.S. – Mexico Border region as set forth by the La Paz agreement signed in 1983: the border zone is the region situated 60 miles (100 km) on either side of the 2,000 mile international boundary between the U.S. and Mexico.
Who Uses this Web Site?
The main audience for the U.S. – Mexico Border Health web site is current and future grantees along the Border region. It is anticipated that all people, organizations, and communities with an interest in health care along the U.S. – Mexico border will also find the web site to be a valuable tool.
U.S. - Mexico Border Services
Web-Based Services
In order to provide rural border communities with the information they need, RAC has created a web site that includes:
The Rural Assistance Center
This web site is a project of the Rural Assistance Center, funded by the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Funding for the project comes from a cooperative agreement between the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Rural Assistance Center.
A product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Rural Initiative, the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) was established in December 2002 as a national rural health and human services "information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding, and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human services to rural residents. Services available through the Rural Assistance Center include a dynamic web-site, electronic updates on rural health and human services, and customized assistance provided by RAC's Information Specialists.
RAC is a collaboration of the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health (UND-CRH), the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) and is based at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
For more information about the Rural Assistance Center, call (800) 270-1898 or visit RAC online at
http://www.raconline.org.
The Office of Rural Health Policy
The Rural Assistance Center is supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Rural Health Policy. The Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) promotes better health care service in rural America. Established in August 1987 by the Administration, ORHP was subsequently authorized by Congress in December 1987 and located in the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Congress charged ORHP with informing and advising HHS on matters affecting rural hospitals and health care, coordinating activities within the Department that relate to rural health care, and maintaining a national information clearinghouse.
ORHP works with government at the federal, state and local levels, and with the private sector--associations, foundations, providers and community leaders--to seek solutions to rural health care problems.
For more information about the Office of Rural Health Policy, call (301) 443-0835 or visit ORHP on the web at http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov.
More information about the Border Health Project can be found on the web at
http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/border/ 
