It can be hard for a kid to navigate the pitfalls of adolescence. The staff at Three Rivers Middle School wants to help. That help comes in many forms, one of which is a program called TRAILS – Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students.
Nurses surveyed in 2021 said the most common reason they planned to leave their job was that work had negatively affected their health and well-being. The second most common reason was insufficient staffing. Here's why it's important to provide care for them and what some are doing to make sure they get it.
A recent survey of caregivers under age 30, commissioned by the New York-Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, found 53% said caregiving had taken a toll on their mental and/or physical health. Young caregivers need more support but where will it come from? There's an app for that.
This article is part of Overloaded and (Often) Unpaid, a joint solutions journalism project on caregiving and mental wellness between the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative (of which Watershed Voice is a member) and the New York and Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of news and community organizations dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about successful responses to social problems. The groups are supported by the Solutions Journalism Network.
Experts in the field agree that some old methods of treating mental illness belong in the past. But one may be due for revival, a professor at Western Michigan University said.
Alek and Doug discuss all things Austin, as Alek heads to Texas for the Independent News Sustainability Summit and 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards. The pair go over which categories Watershed Voice nominated for, Doug decides which sessions Alek and Deborah will attend at the summit, and Alek talks about being a writing mentor for the Voices of Youth program in Kalamazoo.
Join Watershed Voice staff in listening to two of the most preeminent authorities in their fields discuss how the media can improve its reporting on the crucial topics of caregiving and mental health. While we're attending the event in-person, you can join via Facebook live on Monday and Tuesday.
Recovery Institute of Southwest Michigan, Inc., at 1020 South Westnedge in Kalamazoo, is run entirely by peers. The nonprofit was established in 2006 on the peer support concept. The 16 staff members, with the exception of the executive director Shawn Harris, have all traveled the challenging path of recovery with various mental health and/or substance abuse issues.
You may be feeling sad, or lonely, or overwhelmed, or just confused about what to do next. You aren’t standing on the edge of a cliff, but you could really use someone to talk to. For you, a new initiative in Southwest Michigan, called the Warmline, was established in October 2021 by three local nonprofits: Gryphon Place, ASK Family Services, and Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health.
In order to better understand the local impact, the support systems that are available, and the gaps in the system in the greater Kalamazoo community, the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative’s Mental Wellness Project held a forum with experts in the field.
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