The budget signed recently by Governor Gretchen Whitmer includes almost 50 million dollars to implement recommendations from the Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist (GIL-krist) chaired the task force. He says COVID-19 offered a lot of lessons about how to provide health care including screenings and vaccinations to under-served areas of the state.
Gilchrist said, “I expect some amazing things to come from the community health zones, work in the neighborhood-based services that we’re going to expand. We’ve seen a significant impact in rural communities with mobile health units, as well. So I think you’re going to see more creativity in the public health space in Michigan as a result of what we’ve learned over the past three years.”
Gilchrist says the lessons on how to reach people who need care apply to rural as well as urban areas. It includes neighborhood health grants and mobile clinics.
