Grant Writing Journey Reflection-Abigail Menke
For me, the “why” behind grant writing goes back to my experiences as a child. Growing up in a rural Missouri town was everything I could have wanted in a childhood. I got to spend a lot of time outdoors, run around town without feeling unsafe, and made friends in kindergarten that I still see to this day. My entire family has lived in the same small town going back generations. These experiences have led to a soft spot in my heart and mind for the people living in rural towns. Although rural life is pretty good in a lot of ways, they also face a number of issues, specifically related to health care.
Growing up, I would always hear people complaining about issues relating to access to health care. For example, there were no doctors in town, so even taking a child to a routine appointment would mean missing at least a half day of school for the child and work for the parent. Even as a kid I knew that this was a problem, and one that many people could not afford. Distance was also a problem in accidents. A friend of mine lost her brother in a car accident because the ambulance simply took too long to get there. They would also complain about the cost of health care, although that took many years for me to understand.
I became interested in mental health care in college. I never heard anything about mental health growing up, so learning about it in college was completely new and I was fascinated by it. I realized eventually that there is a huge stigma around mental health care where I grew up. No one talks about it, and if you have a problem, you need to deal with it quietly. I came to learn the county I grew up in is actually designated as a Mental Health Provider Shortage Area, along with most other counties in Missouri. This combination of a stigma and lack of providers create a serious access problem in rural areas, especially in rural Missouri. It was these experiences that led me to wanting to research rural health care and help these same people that I grew up with.
My current research focus is on the systemic level of rural mental health care. I want to understand where there are gaps that could easily be filled, and how those gaps could be filled with resources that already exist. This is where grant writing comes in. Rural health departments and organizations historically do not have enough money to research these issues themselves.
They are often trying to stretch their dollars to help as many people as they can. For me, I understand that grant writing will be an important part of my career if I want to continue learning about these rural areas and attempt to solve the problems that they face. I don’t have any experience in grant writing as of yet, so this class is very useful in helping me learn what is entailed in this process.
