Transforming Rural Health Together
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rural Health Transformation Fund represents a powerful opportunity to improve health, well-being, and prevention outcomes in rural communities across all fifty states.
EDC Solutions helps states and communities make the most of this opportunity. We partner with state and local education, healthcare, and community-serving organizations to turn federal investment into lasting, community-led change.
Our Experts
For more than 65 years, EDC has worked alongside communities to advance health, learning, and well-being. Our rural health work is grounded in partnership, evidence, and practical implementation.
Our experts live and work in rural areas, bringing decades of experience leading successful programs and a deep understanding of the many strengths and unique challenges of rural communities.
Reach out to us for support connecting with, planning, implementing, and sustaining transformation efforts funded through the Rural Health Transformation Fund.
EDC Solutions Initiatives Aligned With RHTF Priorities
With a focus on suicide and substance misuse prevention, our work in healthcare, education, and communities aligns with the Rural Health Transformation Fund's priority areas of sustainable access, workforce development, and innovative care.
- Zero Suicide
Zero Suicide is the transformational model for health and behavioral healthcare systems seeking to make a system-wide transformation toward safer suicide care. Since Zero Suicide was created in 2012, more than 1,200 systems in the US and around the world have begun implementation—and they’re seeing results.
Recommended services: Summer 2026 Zero Suicide National Academy, Zero Suicide Consultation
- Assessing & Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR)
For more than twenty-five years, the Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) research-informed, person-first risk formulation model has helped health and behavioral health professionals increase their confidence navigating challenging conversations and providing compassionate care to individuals at risk for suicide.
Recommended services: AMSR-Substance Use Disorder Training, AMSR Courses
- Multi-Tiered Suicide Prevention (MTSP) in Schools
Multi-Tiered Suicide Prevention (MTSP) for Schools is designed to assist educational leaders in improving upon strategic planning and structural changes toward suicide prevention within a multi-tiered system of support. MTSP for Schools assists educators, counselors, and school and district leaders with creating and improving on the six components of school suicide prevention.
Recommended services: MTSP for Schools Technical Assistance
- Community-Led Suicide Prevention (CLSP)
EDC provides step-by-step information, how-to tools, interactive training, and tailored coaching to support communities using EDC's transformative Community-Led Suicide Prevention (CLSP) framework for achieving comprehensive suicide prevention.
Recommended services: CLSP Academy, CLSP Consultation
- Prevention Solutions (Substance Misuse & Problem Gambling)
Our Prevention Solutions team can partner with you to support your substance misuse and problem gambling prevention needs. Our team of experts can facilitate strategic planning, support effective needs assessment and evaluation services, implement student health surveys, identify evidence-informed policies, practices, and programs to address your behavioral health problems, and translates research into practice. We can develop tools and guidance documents, on topics from public health planning to risk and protective factors, to collaboration.
Recommended services: Prevention Solutions Training, Prevention Solutions Consultation
More Ways EDC Supports Rural Health
In addition to suicide and substance misuse prevention, EDC works in rural communities nationwide to expand access to high-quality primary and preventive care, maternal and child health care, clinical workforce training and support, and more.
To partner with EDC for support in these areas, reach out to Kim Dash at kdash@edc.org.
- Rural Maternal & Child Healthcare
EDC partners with rural health organizations to strengthen maternal and child health systems and improve outcomes for women, infants, children, and families. We lead with evidence and work alongside those served by MCH systems to design and advance practical solutions.
Our services include strategic action planning; design, leadership, and facilitation of quality improvement initiatives; and convening cross-sector partners across health care, public health, early childhood, child care, and community systems.
EDC brings deep subject matter expertise across a range of MCH topics—including, but not limited to, infant mental health consultation, midwifery, doula care, home visiting, primary and preventive care, breastfeeding, and supporting families impacted by substance use disorder. We offer data analysis, analytics support, visualization and data dashboards, mixed-methods research and evaluation, community-based participatory research design, technical assistance, training, and capacity building. With strong project management and facilitation capabilities, we efficiently support efforts ranging from individual organizations to statewide, regional, and national initiatives.
We invite partners, funders, and practitioners to contact us to co-develop products, collaborate on projects, or engage with us as consultants to advance MCH systems nationwide.
- Primary & Preventive Care
EDC’s expert systems change consultants and experienced evaluation team guides leaders in planning, implementing, assessing, and sustaining improvements. We specialize in facilitating collaboration, coordination, and communication to advance shared goals to expand access to care, improve services, and strengthen systems.
We provide key data to drive change, including conducting needs assessments of health care systems and services; workforce capacity, distribution, and retention; and barriers to health care access by population and place.
Our planning support engages rural residents, providers, and partners in shaping priorities, effective program models, and successful implementation plans.
We develop award-winning digital tools that extend providers’ reach, promote preventive care, and support disease management. Two recent examples include our PTSD Decision Aid and VetChange tools.- Workforce Training & Support
EDC provides training for preventive, primary, perinatal, and behavioral care providers, leaders, and administrators. Our evidence-based, cost-efficient, effective on-the-job learning ensures all providers fully meet patients’ needs. We also produce digital tools that providers can use to support patient well-being between visits.
We specialize in helping partners establish collaborative improvement and innovation networks that both support professional learning and build teams’ capacity to use data to increase efficiencies and improve systems, services, and patient outcomes
Our coaching support helps health care leaders launch and sustain partnerships, streamline operations, increase coordination of care, and successfully implement new service models. We help providers, leaders, and administrators tap the power of technology, evidence, and data dashboarding to transform rural health systems and services.