The Frameworks Institute, in partnership with the National Network of Public Health Institutes two communication resources to help you have more fruitful, curiosity-driven conversations about health disparities in rural contexts.

Report: Talking about Health Disparities in Rural Contexts

This guide outlines five overall evidence-based steps, based on rigorous message testing, for talking about health and wellbeing for all in a way that resonates with the public and with decision-makers in rural places:

1. Lead with the idea of dignity
2. Expand ideas of health and health disparities
3. Speak to history
4. Connect the past to the present
5. Point to the future

This resource provides evidence-based strategies to reframe important health issues impacting a community in a manner that emphasizes the value of dignity, improves understanding of local health issues, and strengthens support for eliminating health disparities and addressing the nonmedical drivers that influence health, like gaps in transportation, access to healthcare, and education.

Reframing Health Disparities in Rural America Toolkit

This communications toolkit helps local level public health practitioners communicate more effectively about how to eliminate disparities through sound approaches. It draws from the science of framing and provides strategies to address challenges in outreach, education, and advocacy. The toolkit will help you improve public conversations, reports, media interactions, social media materials, and policy discussions.

It includes:

• Mindsets to Move: Shifting unhelpful mindsets
• Starter Language for Various Communication Settings
• Keeping Conversations on Track: Tips for maintaining productive discussions
• Dignity Reframe: Emphasizing “dignity for all” to build support
• Connecting History to Current-Day Health
• Depicting the Diversity of Rural Communities
• Examples of Communication Products