Michigan is repaying student loans for some mental health workers, a financial boost that keeps mental health workers on the job, caring for children.
Western Michigan University
About 23 years ago, Jim Henry and four other Kalamazoo-area professionals launched the Southwest Michigan Child Trauma Assessment Center at Western Michigan University. At the time, few people knew how traumatic experiences can negatively affect the developing brain of a child. But the founders of CTAC did. And the center they created to assess traumatized children has not only become the model for similar centers across Michigan and in Colorado, but also has effected change in the state’s child-welfare system and beyond.
Conner McBride, a senior at Loy Norris High School in Kalamazoo and a Voices of Youth correspondent, examines what Kalamazoo is doing to protect the environment, and how teens can get involved.
Western Michigan professors and students alike are normalizing and destigmatizing conversations around mental health in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two recent Western Michigan University graduates have formed a support group for Spanish-speaking young adults who may be thinking about or have previously thought about suicide.
If you are Spanish-speaking and are roughly in the age group of 18 to 25, the group meets every Saturday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Centerpoint City Church, 326 W. Cork St. in Kalamazoo.
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.
This story was originally published by MLive and is part of the Mental Wellness Project, a solutions-oriented journalism initiative covering mental health issues in southwest Michigan, created by the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative. SWMJC is a group of 13 regional organizations (including Watershed Voice) dedicated to strengthening local journalism. For more info, visit swmichjournalism.com.
With only 18 days left to finalize the rest of the state budget before the new Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 begins, leaders tell the Advance they’re confident there will be a negotiated budget in time to avoid a government shutdown — but there is some concern about higher education funding due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Three Rivers Pastor James Smith writes, “God does not just work through miracle cures, but through science, medicine, and above all love. It may be that what is being tested right now is not our faith, but our love. Do we have the love to get a shot that we might not think we need but that will help us not get someone else sick? Do we have the love to come together as a country and as the world to defeat a common enemy to humanity?”
District Judge Paul Maloney blocked Western Michigan University on Tuesday from imposing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement on four female soccer players who claimed the requirements infringed on their constitutional religious rights.
WSV’s Charles Thomas argues a person doesn’t have to attend an Ivy League school to better their lives or the lives of their children in this week’s “Big World, Small Town.”
Glen Oaks graduate and Three Rivers resident Judah Kay has been awarded the Western Michigan University Phi Theta Kappa Alumni Scholarship in the amount of $10,000.
Doug and Alek are joined by Watershed Voice columnist, local author & psychotherapist Charles Thomas to discuss Taylor Swift pulling a Prince, Mark Cuban’s decision to temporarily stop playing the National Anthem before Dallas Mavericks games, and coping with mental health issues in the midst of a global pandemic.