Abstract
This special issue contains 8 papers on rural health. Specific topics addressed by these papers include: health services within rural communities and Aboriginal health; social determinants of health and possible implications for workforce development; systems failure and a radical hope for re-grounding responsibility and access to health care in a Mallee town community; implications of family violence in rural, farming communities for women's health; virtue ethics and rural professional healthcare roles; rural responses to H1N1 influenza A; perceptions and experiences of health and health care from socio-economically disadvantaged rural residents; adopting a proactive approach to improve health of Australia's rural population.
