Editor’s Note: This story is part four of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

Ayesha Tanjum moved to the U.S. about two years ago with her husband, an international student. Shortly after, she learned she was pregnant.  

“It was really tough for me in Michigan, because I didn’t have any friends or relatives around, and I was struggling to make friends,” she said. 

Tanjum said she was having mood swings due to hormonal changes and a complicated pregnancy.

“I had loneliness, frustrations, fear, anxiety, and I was alone. So I had a hyper, hypertension that time. And in the last time, my doctor figured it out that my baby’s baby’s growth is restricted,” she explained. 

Tanjum says she ultimately got the care and support she needed. She also read books to learn more about maternal health and nutrition, and began reaching out to old friends and connecting with new ones. That helped to improve her mental health. 

Speaking about mental health remains a taboo subject for many Bangladeshi women. 

Shuhrat Choudhury is a Bangladeshi American mental health counselor. She says stigma is the biggest reason many women don’t seek care — especially in older generations.

“I would be contacted by their sons, their daughters, their daughter-in-laws, that we need help for our mom or, like the older generation, but they are not OK. Like, they just, it’s that stigma around mental health, they go, ‘I’m not crazy,’” she said.  

Choudhury says younger Bangladeshi Americans struggle with navigating between American individuality and the Bangladeshi culture’s collective family expectations, in which personal boundaries do not exist in the same way in Bangladeshi culture.  

“When I transition to working someone with from our community, I have to find that balance. I just can’t advise them to move out, because you know that’s just not how it works in our culture,” she said. “I might use that terminology, but as long I’m explaining in our culture, it might not be feasible exactly the definition, but maybe a different version of it.” 

Choudhury said affordability is another barrier which can keep people from getting mental health care services. 

“Not a lot of our community members have access to better insurance plans, or they’re not financially stable. That when mixed with that stigma that we’re already trying to overcome, one obstacle on top of it, if it’s not financially feasible, then that just creates more delay in getting that help,” she added. 

There’s also a shortage of Bangla or Bengali speaking mental health professionals.  

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated, so I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

– Shuhrat Choudhury, Bangladeshi American mental health counselor

“I have been reached out by people from out of state, like someone in Michigan worked with me and their mom, brother, sister, someone’s like in Texas, but they just can’t find someone Bengali there,” she said.

Choudhury says she didn’t know there was such a need until she entered the field. She says she made that choice, in part, to give back to the community. 

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated,” she said. “So I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

Like Choudhury, Fariha Ghazi entered the mental health field to provide culturally competent care. Ghazi is a psychiatric physician assistant in Grand Rapids, who lives in the metro Detroit area and has telehealth options. 

She said she frequently sees Bangladeshi women struggling with anxiety, which manifests as physical symptoms first. 

“When they go see their general primary care provider, they’re often treated for things like stomach pain or acid reflux or, given sleep medication to help with sleep, a kind of root cause of a lot of those physical symptoms, it tends to be what I see being anxiety and trying to get them treatment for it,” she said. 

Ghazi says many women hesitate to discuss their mental health. She takes a creative approach to uncovering their struggles. 

“If someone has children, you know, I’d maybe ask her what are things that she thinks about in terms of her children, so if she’s always kind of like jumping to worst case scenarios, like thinking something bad’s going to happen to her child, or she kind of expresses that in our session, I’ll kind of note that as being, part of her symptoms.”  

Many women are also hesitant to take medication due to cultural taboos surrounding mental health treatment.

Ghazi said there is cultural taboo around taking medications to treat mental health, and part of her role is to explain treatment options and encourage self-advocacy, which she said plays a role in coverage. 

“If someone’s not fully aware of the terminology or what’s out there as resources, they’re not likely to get the health care that they need. They’re also much more willing to just kind of not question medical providers either. They’ll, be more complacent in their care,” she said. 

Choudhury and Ghazi say mental health is a vital part of caring for Bangladeshi women. They see a growing need for more Bangladeshi mental health professionals to serve their community.  

For now, they are using their language skills, cultural awareness, and lived experiences to provide better care. 

Read more from this series:

• Free health clinic aims to close insurance gap for Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan  
• Bangladeshi women rely on culturally competent care for better health outcomes
• How language access affects health care for Bangladeshi women in Michigan

Organizers and volunteers of the Muslim Foster Care Association (MFCA) hosted a buffet-style meal and celebration for its third annual Ramadan iftar, bringing Muslim foster youth and families together.

Iftar is the meal where Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.

There was a row of savory food from the halal restaurant Sukho Thai in Dearborn Heights, and a table full of sweet treats like knafeh and enormous Macadamia cookies.

MFCA Co-founder Sameena Zahoor welcomed the attendees. 

“I want to thank the families and the foster parents and the families are helping the foster parents and the foster youth that are here today,” she said.

Many Muslims spend time fasting, praying, and doing extra worship with a community during Ramadan. However, many Muslim foster children in Michigan end up spending Ramadan in non-Muslim foster homes — alone. 

MFCA wanted to provide a space for the youth to be in community with others.

Salifu Mahmoud previously lived in a non-Muslim home as a foster youth since resettling from Ghana about three years ago. He now lives in independent housing in Canton. 

He says fasting during Ramadan is an important part of his religious practices.

“Living with someone who is not like Muslim, like foster care, it’s kind of hard in Ramadan,” he shared.

Mahmoud says his former foster care provider was unaware of his religion or obligations during Ramadan — such as waking up early to eat suhoor, the morning meal before fasting, or praying Taraweeh in congregation at a mosque during Ramadan nights. 

This year Mahmoud is staying with a Muslim family during Ramadan, allowing him to experience the familial and communal practices of the month.

“Since I moved to America, this is my best Ramadan,” he said, reflecting that it reminds him of his Ramadans in Africa. “They [his Muslim foster parents] treat me like their kids, showing me love.” 

At the iftar, Tonja Baker, a therapist who works for Whaley Children’s Center in Flint, came to learn more about MFCA.

“I was connected through this program for one of our youth at the campus, and managed to be able to bring her down and have her enjoy, you know, Iftar, and be able to just meet and greet with the other families that are here,” she said.

It’s important for the staff to learn culturally competent care to provide services or Muslim youth, Baker said, and the center tries to link Muslim youth to mosques in the area, but resources are scarce.

In addition to the iftar, MFCA passed out Ramadan 215 baskets filled with goodies like dates, halal marshmallows, and a Target gift card to Muslim foster youth in Michigan. 

Shereen Abunada, director of operations at MFCA, says she’s been working to increase the number of Muslim foster parents, but many are feeling burnout.

“That happens when parents have a placement that doesn’t go as well as they had hoped,” she said.

There are about 10 licensed Muslim foster families for the state’s 250 Muslim foster youth, 50 more than last year.

Abunada says the number of Muslim youth in the system has increased. In anticipation of potentially changing immigration policies, resettlement agencies recently expedited travel for Muslim foster youth from West African countries.

“So we’ve had an influx of about 50 to 70 youth that have just recently arrived in the in the past couple months,” she said.

Abunada says unaccompanied refugee minors feel vulnerable.

“A lot of them are also just the fear of being deported, the fear of being targeted. A lot of these kids are just by themselves, kind of going back to their own, their home countries, or trying to find other places to be,” she said.

Abunada says organizations and agencies are working to protect the children.

Hosting the iftar was one way to create a community for the foster youth, as they navigate the next steps in their journeys.

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Editor’s Note: This story is part three of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

The Health Unit on Davison Avenue in Detroit (HUDA Clinic) is the largest free health care clinic in Wayne County. It serves uninsured and underinsured patients helping about 5,000 patients annually.

Nurse Practitioner Joann Harrison says about 30% of HUDA’s patients are Bangladeshi women. She says many struggle with mental health and chronic conditions due to lack of access to regular care. 

“There are problems with hypertension and diabetes. I just see a wide variety of issues, a lot of it has to do with not knowing how to manage or not having the resources to manage issues,” she said. 

Within that care, Harrison says Bangladeshi women are more receptive to female health care providers. 

“I think they’re more open to talk with us. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case that we have female providers available or female translators available, but I do feel that when there is someone present, there is more openness, more freedom to speak with us,” she explained. 

The clinic also provides interpreters and translated educational materials. 

Harrison, who is Black, said she is learning more about Bangladeshi culture, including about food and family values, to better serve her patients. “I’m learning all the time about how to help them, especially the women, to better care for themselves and what issues affect them.”  

Dr. Nashita Molla is a Bangladeshi American physician who volunteers at the HUDA Clinic. Part of her care is educating Bangladeshi women about preventive care. 

“In Bangladesh there isn’t a whole lot of cancer screening, so patients don’t have a PCP that they go to continuously and get colonoscopies every 10 years, or pap smears every three to five years,” she said.

Molla said having more Bangladeshi doctors and health care providers who are women could improve care for Bangladeshi women patients. 

“If I’m not there, or, you know, another female Bengali provider is not there, or then they’re not going to be as open with those other providers. They might not do those tests because they don’t understand why they need those things,” she shared. 

Molla said there’s a need for more free clinics and educational materials in Bengali, such as informational videos on diabetes and hypertension, which are rampant among Bangladeshis.  

“I think it helps if there’s another Bengali female saying, like, ‘hey we gotta cut down the portions of how much they’re eating, and cut down on the fried foods, and it’ll mean a lot more coming from them than it would like any other culture,” she said.

Like some patients served at HUDA Clinic, some Bangladeshi women end up in the Emergency Room for primary care because they don’t have adequate insurance.  

Dr. Farjana Alam is an emergency medicine physician who works at several hospitals in metro Detroit.  

She says socioeconomic barriers contribute to these challenges. 

“Poverty is higher in our people. I’ve seen lack of education is higher. And so I think that also plays into effect with all the health literacy gaps which then leads to like issues with chronic illnesses and not having an overall, as great of a health outcomes as, like other people,” she said.  

Alam grew up helping her immigrant parents navigate the health care system.  As a result, she said she understands firsthand how having limited resources affects one’s health.  

Social determinants of health, factors such as limited English proficiency, inadequate insurance and needing help with transportation can make a big difference in health outcomes, she said. 

“You can’t compare someone like a white female from a family who has all the resources in the world, who has all the money in the world, her health outcomes, to this Bangladeshi female who barely finished school, who has all these financial constraints over her; like you can’t compare those health outcomes,” she said.  

Alam said despite these barriers, Bangladeshi women in metro Detroit are empowering themselves by learning English, learning how to drive, and educating their children to assist them to have better health outcomes.  

Read more from this series:

• Bangladeshi women rely on culturally competent care for better health outcomes
• How language access affects health care for Bangladeshi women in Michigan

Editor’s Note: This story is part two of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

When the pandemic shut down many doctor’s offices, Family Nurse Practitioner Farzana Noor noticed a growing need among Bangladeshi women seeking care at her clinic in Hamtramck. Noor is the medical director at the Children’s Clinic of Michigan.

“It’s hard for them to go elsewhere to a provider who maybe is not Bangladeshi and hope that they have the same level of understanding of what their needs are and everything that they’re dealing with at home,” Noor said.

As a Bangladeshi-American she understands the struggles firsthand of the women who come to the clinic. That’s why she’s working to close the cultural gap in health care.

Many Bangladeshi women are stay-at-home mothers, often prioritizing their families over their health.

“But they’re missing out on their screenings, like pap smears, and they’re missing out on mammograms, and they’re missing out on this routine screening for diabetes and high cholesterol and high blood pressure,” she said.

Noor says language is another way she can connect with her patients. She speaks multiple Bangla dialects and says that can make a world of difference in treatment and care.

“When they’re able to tell me something in their native language, in their first language, versus if they were telling me something in English, it’s a night and day difference and then it’s like, we go from 10% to like, 110%,” she said.

Seeking primary care in the Emergency Room

Dr. Tabtila Chowdhury is a resident doctor at Henry Ford Health in Detroit. She frequently sees Bangladeshi women in the ER. Many arrive with untreated conditions because they don’t have a primary care physician.

“They’ll come in for the headache, but then they’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, my blood pressure, your sugar’s been high. And then also, in Bangladesh, I used to take this, like, one medication for, like, you know, seizure-like activity,'” she explained, adding that many new Bangladeshi immigrants only have emergency health insurance and do not have a primary care doctor to manage their daily maintenance medication.

Chowdhury says she sees one or two people per shift with similar concerns. She says many times Bangladeshis have atypical symptoms of illnesses, which can put them at further risk.

For example, they might feel stomach pain and acid reflux for heart attack symptoms. Chowdhury sends them for an EKG if they have such symptoms.

Chowdhury says she feels a responsibility to go the extra mile to take care of her Bangladeshi patients.

“I make it a fact when I’m working, I always pick up all the Bengali patients, and I do a much better, more in depth, just like, dive into, their health care because half the time, people can’t even explain what’s going on with them,” she said.

Health literacy, comprehension and advocacy

Rumyah Rafique has had similar experiences at The Health Unit on Davison Avenue, where she’s a medical interpreter. She offers her services to Bangladeshi patients, finding that women are more receptive to female health care providers.

“I usually can tell if a patient is Bangladeshi, and I always let the provider know that if this is a patient that needs interpretation, that I am a qualified interpreter, that I’ve done this type of work, and that I’m more than willing to provide that service for this patient,” she said.

Rafique sees firsthand how cultural barriers can impact care for people with diabetes. According to the National Institutes of Health, South Asian patients are three times more likely to get diabetes.

Rafique says Bangladeshis have a rice-heavy diet, which leads to diabetes.

“Diabetes runs rampant in our communities, and I think that a lot of people don’t understand the concept of rice being a carbohydrate,” she said.

Rafique says having a family advocate in the room is also another important element to health care for Bangladeshi women.

“Our cultures are very communal and very family-oriented, and it’s a little bit different from the Western idea of individualism, and I think that that makes it difficult sometimes for Bangladeshi women who want to have their family as a part of their care,” she said.

Rafique says while women rely on male family members for transportation and interpretation, they need to advocate for themselves, especially when it comes to sensitive topics like reproductive health.

She says that’s not unique to Bangladeshi culture, however, it can be a challenge.

“That balance is really difficult for a patient to navigate, how do I make sure my needs and wants are being heard by my physician, how much I want, say my husband or my brother or my father to be a part of my care, versus, those things to remain private,” she explained.

Bangladeshi-American health care workers like Noor, Chowdhury and Rafique are stepping up to provide culturally competent care and bridge the gap, by understanding the sensitivities and the lifestyles of Bangladeshi women.

However, they also say there should be more health care education for non-Bangladeshi providers to create culturally sensitive services for this population.

Editor’s Note: This story is part one of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

Michigan is home to the third largest population of Bangladeshis in the U.S., with a significant number living in the metro Detroit area.

Bangladeshi immigrants struggle with a number of challenges when trying to access health care, including language, cultural competency and adequate insurance.

Community organizations like the Detroit Friendship House in Hamtramck are working to bridge the language gap many Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan face when trying to access health care.

The nonprofit provides health education workshops to help them understand and navigate the health care system.

Khurshida Hossain is the executive director. She says women are the lifeline to their families. 

“It’s the mothers that come to pick up food, and we need to understand that women, even though if they don’t have access to education or transportation, they’re the ones putting the meals together, they are the ones that have more autonomy over the nutrition and the well-being of their children, and that’s important to us,” she shared.

The organization holds workshops on topics like women’s health, nutrition, and chronic illnesses. But information alone isn’t enough to educate women about their health. Hossain says making health care more approachable is essential.

Workshops are paired with direct enrollment into health care services to help women navigate complex systems. 

“Having them enroll on the spot and explaining those medical terminologies, or having someone that can translate that on the spot makes it more accessible, rather than having just a workshop and saying, ‘Okay, now you have to go here, downtown somewhere, to enroll and speak to a certain person that’s very disconnected and very intimidating,’” she said.

In 2018, Detroit Friendship House partnered with Eastern Michigan University’s Racial Ethnic Approaches to Community Health program (REACH), to create more targeted workshops.

Hossain says a key goal was to help Bangladeshi women learn English so they could better advocate for themselves at the doctor’s office, instead of relying on a translator or their child to provide interpretation services. 

“Instead of taking the registration form and handing it to a translator or their child to fill out this sensitive information, they are empowered to answer those questions and fill out those forms themselves,” she said.

The organization also encourages women to sign up for free mammograms and pap smears to educate them about breast and cervical cancer.

Volunteers like Mst Begum, a student at Hamtramck High School, play an essential role. She serves as a translator.

“I was chosen because I’m also Bengali, and I had an easier time connecting with the patients,” she said.

She says part of her job is breaking down stigma.

“That is so necessary to have people who are Bangladeshi trying to get people who are Bangladeshi to sign up for these programs because they feel more comfortable and confident,” she explained.

The growing need for health care workshops for Bangladeshi women

A decade ago, providing culturally specific health education for Bangladeshi women was rare. Dr. Subha Hanif, a cancer rehabilitation fellow at the University of Michigan, started a similar effort in the metro Detroit area in 2012 through her organization Bangladeshi Americans for Social Empowerment.

“I felt this like, this disconnect between the resources being there and then the community, nothing really bridging them together,” she said.

She worked with Beaumont Family Medicine to create women-only health workshops. But gaining support for the program wasn’t easy.

Traditionally, men in the Bangladeshi community would gather information and relay it to their families. Hanif had to convince the elders that women needed their own space to acquire health education.

“I had to do a lot of sitting down with, you know, the uncles in our community and making them understand that if you send your wife here, she’s going to be more empowered to learn about her health,” she added. “She’s going to inadvertently help your family, your children and your health, and she’s going to be more empowered to take care of herself better as well.”

Hanif says many women said they benefitted from these spaces and learned how to ask more questions about their health care.

But language barriers go beyond just medical terminology.

Sylheti-speaking interpreters, health care workers, are in demand

Zak Ahmed is an interpreter for the U.S. Department of Justice and several Michigan hospitals. He says many Bangladeshis in the state speak Sylheti, a dialect used by 11 million people in the world. However, interpreters often speak Shuddo Basha at institutions, the standardized formal Bengali language.

“When I used to do the asylum cases and immigration court, we’ve seen so many people that they are denied or deported because of the language barrier. So we found out that they don’t understand these are, these are basically Sylheti speakers,” he said.

Ahmed says the U.S. Department of Justice added Sylheti as a separate unique language in 2018.

But he says there is still a need for more Sylheti-speaking interpreters, although many patients don’t realize they can request one.

“They do feel much better actually, when they speak their own dialect. They can feel better when they see someone that they can understand their needs,” he said.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says interpreters are available  at no cost for anyone who needs one, including in Bengali.

Last year the state also passed the Meaningful Language Access to State Services law to prompt government agencies to translate important documents in different languages.

However, more bilingual speakers in health care are needed.

There isn’t a formal health care language certification for Bangla or Bengali in metro Detroit, like the one offered in Arabic for health care workers at Wayne State University.

Khurshida Hossain from the Detroit Friendship House says it’s important to amplify efforts to increase the number of Bangladeshi Americans entering health care.

“Then you have doctors and nurses and pas that not only can speak and understand the language, but that look like the community, and it makes that doctor’s appointment that much less intimidating, that much more accessible,” she said.

Language access is a delicate balance between learning health care terminology, advocating for themselves, and finding resources like interpreters for Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan.

Tonight on The Detroit Evening Report, we cover Michigan’s new interactive Public Health Data Dashboard; the Detroit Department of Transportation’s upcoming public hearing on future service changes and more.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Michigan’s new public health dashboard

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has launched a public health dashboard.

The Michigan Public Health Data Dashboard provides policymakers with data on public health trends, based on State House and Senate districts. The data is accessible to lawmakers, local officials, and advocacy groups for public health metrics. It includes health outcomes, such as mortality data, blood lead levels, and health behavior trends. It also has social and economic factors, physical environment trends, and clinical care trends such as prenatal care.

The metrics aim to offer a snapshot of how each district is doing in comparison to the statewide average. To check out the dashboard, visit michigan.gov/healthstatistics. 

DDOT to host public hearing

The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) is hosting a public hearing at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 20, to gather feedback from residents about service changes that begin this summer.

Proposed changes — which go into effect June 22 — include route schedule changes along Grand River and Jefferson streets, among other routes. Several of the routes will expand service frequency, adding time slots throughout the day, while others will get shortened. 

The hybrid hearing will take place at the Rosa Parks Transit Center, 1310 Cass Ave., Detroit, and on Zoom.

House GOP to vote on tax rollback 

Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall says there will be a floor vote this week on a bill to roll back the state income tax rate. The measure would reduce the rate from 4.25% to 4.05%.

That’s where it was two years ago when high tax revenues triggered a law that reduced the income tax. Republicans argued the cut should have been permanent, but the state attorney general and the Treasury determined it was only good for a year. 

Hall says the bill being voted on this week will ensure that future automatic reductions are permanent. 

“And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to move to reverse the Democrat income tax hike and roll that back to 4.05% where it should be,” he said. “And, as you know, every small business and worker in Michigan pays the income tax and so this is going to really help them with the cost of living right now.”

Democrats say that would reduce revenue. They challenged Republicans to say what budget cuts they would make to pay for the lower income tax. 

–Reporting by Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network.

Severe Weather Awareness Week

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared this week Severe Weather Awareness Week. This comes after a severe weather over the weekend, with storms and tornadoes crossing several states.

The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DFIS) encourages Michigan residents to acquire insurance coverage for potentially severe weather conditions. They suggest residents review insurance coverage to check for flood insurance, take inventory of personal belongings, and gather emergency contacts.

They say securing important documents and protecting finances by having an emergency fund is also important. DFIS says people with property damage should report a claim, work to document and prevent further loss, and be wary of fraudulent contractors. For more information, visit Michigan.gov/DFIS.  

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) issued an advisory this week warning people of a possible travel ban by the Trump administration for Arab, Muslim-majority countries and others.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The advisory says nationals from Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela or Yemen should not leave the U.S.

If people need to travel, they should check with an immigration attorney before traveling. The advisory also says individuals living or traveling in one of those countries should return to the U.S. immediately, saying U.S. citizens may be able to reenter but may undergo a vetting process.

People can contact ADC’s legal intake hotline at 844-ADC-9955 for further assistance.

Other headlines for Monday, March 10, 2025:

• A Detroit Youth Mobility Summit is planned from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. March 22 at Newlab, Michigan Central.
• The Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) is looking for volunteers to join a network that collects and shares surface water quality data throughout Michigan.
• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says nearly 60,000 students are receiving the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, saving families $252 million in tuition costs.
• The charity organization Mercy-USA for Aid and Development is hosting its second annual book drive, Lanterns for Literacy. Last year, 8,000 books were donated to families in Detroit through the program. The organization is looking for book donations, volunteers or financial gifts to create literacy kits.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

There are 10,000 kids in Michigan’s foster care system. About half of them are placed with a relative, known as kinship care. 

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently piloted a program with 16 kinship care support workers, or caseworkers, across nine counties: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Genesee, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Grand Traverse, Lenawee and Ingham. 

MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel says when children are not able to stay with their parents safely, the state prioritizes placing them with a relative. 

“We’ve been able to create some specialized programs and positions to work with family members to make sure that they have all the supports and resources that they need to feel comfortable to take that child in on behalf of their relative,” she said.

Hertel met with kinship caregivers, advisory council members, and support staff this week at the MDHHS South Central Wayne Office in Detroit to discuss the state’s commitment toward children and kinship caregivers.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed a $24.4 million budget to expand a pilot kinship care support program next year. 

The expansion would provide 70 additional kinship care support workers and family resources, Hertel said.

“Outside of just the concrete physical supports, the emotional and behavioral health supports as well,” she said. “So if children are needing therapy sessions or psychiatry, that we work to make sure that we’re connecting services to the family, not just the child, but everyone involved.”

The next step is expanding the pilot statewide. 

“We’ve been really lucky that we’ve had such support from the governor and from the legislature that they believe that this program is effective, and I’m really optimistic that we’ll be able to see an expansion next year,” Hertel said.

The money will also go toward kinship care support resource centers.

According to the MDHHS’s website, kinship care can include biological relatives or family friends caring for children through a placement by MDHHS’s foster care program, or arrangements made outside the welfare system. 

Hertel says the resource centers support all families. 

“We also support kinship care resources so that other families who may not be involved in the system have a place to reach out to,” she said, such as the Kinship Care Resource Center (KCRC) at Michigan State University.

Hertel says these caseworkers are specialized to work with families who take in foster youth who are placed with relatives.  

“In places where we have seen implementing this pilot, we are seeing an increase in some of those areas, in placements with family members,” she said.

Hertel says it’s a priority to place kids in the foster care system with next of kin whenever possible. She says this usually reduces trauma, provides more stability for children, and reduces the time they are in foster care.

The funding is part of a larger proposed $90 million budget going toward helping kids stay safe. 

A new report by the National Poll on Healthy Aging says a third of Michigan adults 50 and older have jobs. The study reveals that working later in life benefits wellbeing but comes with several challenges.

Jeffrey Kullgren, director of the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging, shares some key findings from the study.

“We found among working adults age 50 and older, work has positive impacts on physical health, mental health and overall well-being. And interestingly, these outcomes are especially pronounced for working adults age 65 and older,” he says.

Some benefits include giving older adults a chance to have social connections— which is important with loneliness on the rise among older adults—and giving them a sense of purpose.

“People who have a greater sense of purpose in life are likely to have lower levels of things like depression, anxiety. So we think it’s likely that working among older adults can help fulfill some of those needs,” he says. 

Kullgren says people surveyed reported facing barriers such as lack of job training in certain areas, transportation and having chronic health issues.  

“In particular for employers, older adults who face some of these kinds of challenges in their ability to work can be better supported by having access to ample time off to attend healthcare appointments,” he explains. 

Kullgren adds that employers should work to provide trainings that address the needs of older adults, and time off for caregiving responsibilities.

Another way to help older employees is to provide alternative transportation options to help get employees to work, whether its working with public or private services. 

The study also found there are regional differences in Michigan’s older working demographic. There are more older adults working in Southeast Michigan than in the rest of the state.  

Adults with higher levels of education and income reported that they were able to work remotely or in a hybrid format more often, which helps them overcome physical limits. On the other hand, older adults with less education who work in certain sectors that  require in-person attendance will deal with a lack of mobility and other challenges. 

“[We need to] optimize work environments for older adults, to accommodate some of the unique needs people may face as they age,” concludes Kullgren.

– WDET’s Natalie Albrecht contributed to this report.

Tonight on The Detroit Evening Report, we cover new incentives for utilities to improve reliability. Plus, construction begins on I-696 East.

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Reliability incentives announced for utilities

DTE and Consumers Energy could face significant penalties within two years for missing reliability targets. But they could also get incentives for meeting or exceeding those goals.

The Michigan Public Service Commission says it will impose penalties of up to $10 million on each of the utilities for failing to reduce the frequency and duration of outages after storms. But the companies could also be awarded the same amount of money for meeting or exceeding outage improvement targets.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel along with others say the order is a start, but the penalties aren’t high enough, and don’t begin soon enough. Both utilities say the order supports what they’re already doing to improve reliability. 

MDOT I-696 construction begins

Construction on the “Restore the Reuther” project began today, spanning across eastbound I-696 from Lahser Road to I-75.

MDOT Spokesperson Diane Cross says the two-year project is part of a larger reconstruction of I-696. She says about 100,000 drivers will need to take another freeway. MDOT’s detour takes drivers south on M-10 on the bottom of the Davidson, then back north on I-75 to get back on I-696 East. But Cross says drivers will take a few weeks to find the best alternative routes for themselves, including other local roads like 8, 12 or 14 Mile Roads. 

Survey shows adults over 50 benefit from work

A National Poll on Healthy Aging found 34 percent of Michigan residents over age 50 have jobs. The University of Michigan’s Jeffrey Kullgren is the survey’s director.  

“So we found among working adults, age 50 and older, work has positive impacts on physical health, mental health and overall wellbeing,” Kullgren says. “And interestingly, these outcomes are especially pronounced for working adults age 65 and older.”

Kullgren says people report facing barriers such as a lack of training and transportation, or having disabilities. He says employers can provide more time off for doctor’s appointments.  

Wayne State MFA thesis exhibition to open

A new exhibition opens Friday, March 7 at the Wayne State University Art Department Gallery. “BEYOND” explores the themes of transformation, identity and migration. The artworks feature images of water, landscapes and materials which represent resilience. Artists featured are Michael Brzozowski, Alyssa Grace Olson and Ross Owusu. 

International Women’s Panel

The Detroit Public Library is hosting an International Women’s Day: Storytelling Festival on Saturday, March 8. This free event takes place at the main branch of the Detroit Public Library from 2-4:30 p.m. That’s at 5201 Woodward Ave. Galleria Detroit, MI 48202. For more information, visit their Eventbrite page.

Detroit Youth Poetry Con

The Detroit Youth Poetry Con is hosting a free youth poetry showcase in Detroit this month. Participants will learn how to write poetry and connect with artists. The event is put together by InsideOut Literary Arts with the Wayne State University English Department and the NBA Foundation. There will also be special performances by InsideOut youth. 

The day-long event takes place on Saturday, March 15 starting at 9:30 a.m. Registration closes on Sunday, March 9. For more information, visit insideoutdetroit.org.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

February is Black History Month and WDET’s Detroit Evening Report is collecting Black History stories from listeners.

Iola Corbett, also known as Sister Ameedah, is the author of the book “Growing Up Muslim and the Journey Continues,” a story about being born and raised in Detroit.

Corbett’s family was a part of the Nation of Islam when she was a child.

“That was unbelievable, because I remember it like my first time going with [my father] to the temple. At that time, because it was we had a restaurant, the temple was right around the corner,” she shared.

Over the years she met Malcolm X, who visited her family’s restaurant in Detroit often.

“My mother was an excellent cook, so he had dinner with my dad every day, so I got to hear him, and I would serve him. He was a big influence in my family’s life,” she said.

As part of growing up in the Nation of Islam, Corbett said she was a part of something bigger.

“It still gave me a purpose of who I was, who I wanted to be close with my community,” she explained.

There were many businesses, an apartment building and a bookstore that were part of the network.

“We were about African American people, because back in the day, and I’m sure when my dad come up here, I was amazed that he came here and drove, you know, because I remember going down south with him, and it was you couldn’t go in the bathroom. You couldn’t drink out of the faucet. So when we got around people that looked like us and were happy to and treated us royally, you couldn’t have anything but love for that,” she said.

“When we got around people that looked like us and were happy to and treated us royally, you couldn’t have anything but love for that.” — Iola Corbett

Her family converted to Sunni Islam as part of a mass conversion under the guidance of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed in the 1970s.

Corbett worked in Detroit in several roles, including as a factory worker and machine operator for the Detroit Oil Company. She also became first Black female president of Local Lodge 82 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).

“I conduct the meetings and all that. But I also went on a tour of some of the unions around the city. I got to go to Halifax, Nova Scotia, you know, you travel to see what other unions or other of your union members were doing,” she explained.

The larger union 698 took over local union 82.

She says she wrote “Growing Up Muslim” as a way to preserve her family’s legacy.

“We need to know things about our history, and I wanted the community to know children and my grandchildren, and now I have lots of great grandchildren. I got to really expound about how I grew up, so they would know. Because, you know, my mom is gone, my dad is gone, so they never met him. I want them to know what great people that they were.”

Corbett said she’s working on a new book expanding on her life in Detroit.

Hear our full conversation with Corbett using the audio player above.

The Dearborn Police Department is investigating a road rage incident that resulted in the death of a 19-year-old Dearborn Heights girl.

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Dearborn Police responded to the incident on Friday between Tireman Avenue and West Morrow Circle. Police believe the conflict stemmed from one car cutting off another. The victim allegedly followed the suspect’s car to obtain the license plate number. Police allege the suspect shot the victim’s car several times, killing the driver. Two passengers were unharmed. 

Police are now looking for more information regarding the shooting. People can call the Dearborn Police Department at 313-943-2225 or leave an anonymous tip through CrimeStoppers by calling 1-800-SPEAKUP. 

“This is a tremendous and traumatic loss for the greater Dearborn community,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud in a statement. “I thank the Dearborn, Detroit, and Michigan State Police officers who responded and assisted at the scene on Friday evening. I have full faith that our police department will dutifully investigate this incident and bring those involved to justice.”

Other headlines for Monday, Feb. 24, 2025:

• Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County says the organization is scrambling for funding after the Trump administration froze spending promised to help resettle refugees.
• The Patton Recreation Center is collecting donations to support people impacted by flooding from a water main break in Southwest Detroit last week. Residents impacted by the flooding should fill out a Notice of Claim as soon as possible at detroitmi.gov/waterdamageclaims or by calling 313-774-5261.
• The Arab American National Museum hosted a meet-and-greet with Palestinian American stand-up comedian Mohammed “Mo” Amer during the museum’s 20th anniversary celebration on Friday. is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
• The InterFaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit is hosting a virtual film screening of “A Road Trip Across a Divided America,” features the voices of 200 Americans across the country, at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, followed by a Q&A discussion.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.