Bay Mills Indian Community is in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on the eastern shores of Lake Superior near the Canadian border. Bay Mills Health Center, the home base for the diabetes program, was dedicated as the Ellen Marshall Memorial Center in 1998. Ellen Marshall was a traditional healer and midwife at the turn of the 20th century. She served not only the Bay Mills tribe, but the local community as well. The health center has continued to honor this same tradition by providing services to any county resident wishing to establish care.
Bay Mills Indian Community is in a rural, medically underserved area. Despite this, the tribe’s health center provides many basic medical services, which is especially important since the nearest location with similar services is at least 20 miles east in Sault Sainte Marie, a town of about 13,000 residents. To meet the ever-expanding needs of the local community, Bay Mills Health Center moved into a new facility in April 2022. The new building offers primary care services with a full-time staff of one physician and three Certified Family Nurse Practitioners. A traditional healer now holds part-time hours in the medical clinic as well. Dental, pharmacy, behavioral health, and social services are also available. Optometry is a much needed and newly added service. A community health department fulfills a variety of needs, including diabetes education and support, community and employee vaccinations, Healthy Start and Tribal Home Visiting, management of the Bay Mills Farmer’s Market, and patient transportation.
Bay Mills has received funding from SDPI since 1998. It has benefited the community in many ways. It has given the health center the financial means to hire qualified medical professionals (i.e., Registered Nurse and Registered Dietitian) to educate and support tribal members in diabetes self-management care (see Best Practice of Diabetes-related Education in Part D of the Project Narrative). SDPI dollars have also paid for continuing medical education so that these professionals can keep current with the latest advances in this field. Funding in 2023 will continue to be used to support SDPI Key Personnel positions and also for continuing education.
Another service the Bay Mills SDPI program has contributed staff time to is community vaccination clinics to prevent illnesses such as influenza and COVID-19, which may cause more severe complications in people with diabetes. In the past, SDPI Key Personnel have been instrumental in achieving an 83% flu vaccination rate on the 2021 Annual Diabetes Audit Report. This was the highest percentage in the previous 14 years of audit data for Bay Mills. This work will continue in 2023 (see Activity/Service #1 regarding flu immunizations in Part E of the Project Narrative) with the addition of the Pneumovax vaccine to community flu clinics to improve data for the Annual Diabetes Audit Report (see Project Narrative Part B).
SDPI funding has also been used to purchase a number of types of products to support diabetes care. One type of product is glucose testing supplies for tribal members since the health center’s pharmacy does not have a Durable Medical Equipment license to bill insurance for them and the 20-mile distance between Bay Mills and the nearest pharmacy able to provide this service presents a challenge for some people. Supplies for foot care related to Best Practice Activity # 3 (see Project Narrative Part D) and Farmer’s Market coupons for Bay Mills members active with their diabetes care at the health center are among other items SDPI funding has been and will continue to be used for in 2023.
Over the past 25 years, SDPI has provided Bay Mills Indian Community with a tremendous amount of support, both financially and from a programmatic standpoint with expertise from a number of past Bemidji Area Diabetes Consultants. This has helped build and shape the program into the success it is today.