Miles to Go

In 1988, University of Virginia academics began pondering how the institution's vast resources could be used to improve the lives of the rural poor. The result was the Rural Elder Outreach Project, an innovative experiment that for five years evaluated and provided in-home nursing care for rural elder poor in five Virginia counties. As volunteer and observer, Susan Garrett traveled with the project's nurses, doctors, and social workers as they traversed these counties, trying to make a difference in health care and quality of life. Based on her research and experiences, Miles to Go deftly weaves larger issues of aging in rural America into a series of up-close encounters with individuals and their families. Miles to Go raises important questions about what we as a nation can do to help the rural elder poor. Susan Garrett's experiences are made all the more bittersweet by the fact that the Rural Elder Outreach Project did not survive. This book ensures we will never look at scenic views of the countryside in the same light again.