PODCAST: Migrant workers, rural Michigan, and rethinking community during COVID

While Michigan’s rural communities may not have faced the same heavy COVID-19 caseload as more densely populated urban areas, they’ve still struggled with unique challenges. Limited access to hospitals, limited transportation options, and lack of broadband internet have all affected rural Michiganders’ ability to get the care they need. And all these challenges have been particularly acute for an often-overlooked segment of Michigan’s rural population: migrant workers. While they’re often invisible or looked down upon in the communities where they live and work, these migrant workers embody rural Michigan’s experience with the pandemic.

On this week’s episode of Michigan’s State of Health we talked with Jesse Costilla, migrant program manager at Great Lakes Bay Health Centers (GLBHC); and Amanda Byler, migrant medical director and a nurse practitioner at GLBHC, about rural Michigan’s health challenges and how they affect migrant workers. Join us as we discuss adapting during the pandemic to better address rural Michiganders’ needs, and how we can strengthen health care for all residents of Michigan’s rural communities in the long run.

Michigan’s State of Health is a spinoff of the State of Health series of feature stories, which you can read here. Michigan’s State of Health is produced by Issue Media Group and made possible through the support of the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

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