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Film explores rural health care amid poverty, opioid crisis

A new documentary explores the world of rural health care workers amid poverty and a persistent opioid crisis

FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2016, file photo, family physician Leslie Hayes listens for a fetal heartbeat while attending to a 40-year-old mother, not seen, who is being treated for an addiction to heroin with the anti-craving medication Subutext, at the El Centro Family Health medical clinic in Espanola, N.M. "The Providers," set to air on the PBS Independent Lens series this week, looks at the challenges three health care workers in rural New Mexico face as they give services to aging patients and those struggling with addiction. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2016, file photo, family physician Leslie Hayes listens for a fetal heartbeat while attending to a 40-year-old mother, not seen, who is being treated for an addiction to heroin with the anti-craving medication Subutext, at the El Centro Family Health medical clinic in Espanola, N.M. "The Providers," set to air on the PBS Independent Lens series this week, looks at the challenges three health care workers in rural New Mexico face as they give services to aging patients and those struggling with addiction. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)Read moreMorgan Lee / AP

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A new documentary explores the world of rural health care amid poverty and a persistent opioid crisis.

"The Providers," set to air on the PBS Independent Lens series this week, looks at the challenges three health care workers in rural New Mexico face as they provide services to aging patients and those struggling with addiction.

The film shows how the health care providers from El Centro Family Health Center refuse to pass judgment on patients trying to cope with alcoholism, opioid use and unemployment in one the poorest regions in the nation.

Filmmakers Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin say they captured around 350 hours of footage.

The film is scheduled to air on most PBS stations on Monday.