Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative (SWMJC) is a dynamic group of 12 partners representing media, educational or community organizations dedicated to strengthening local journalism. We support and enhance the news ecosystem in Southwest Michigan, to provide accurate and equitable coverage, and to promote diversity of voices among journalists and sources alike.
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Cultural Conversations
Bridging the Gap for Culturally Competent Mental Health Services
There is limited availability of Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ-specific therapists, making it harder for people in these populations to find a practitioner they feel comfortable talking to.
In this audio project, presented by Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative’s Mental Wellness Project, we’ve paired two sets of therapists from different racial/ethnic backgrounds and life experiences for conversations on working with culture-specific populations.
This was primarily an opportunity for mental health professionals to share and learn together, and have open conversations to uplift mental health services for all individuals in need of support.
The collaborative is proud to share excerpts of their conversations and is thankful to these participants:
- Maria Faison, El Concilio & Cherish Davis, Integrated Services of Kalamazoo
- Timothy Kelly, Integrated Services of Kalamazoo & Sirilda Jones, Integrated Services of Kalamazoo
A solutions-oriented journalism initiative covering mental health issues in Southwest Michigan.
The Science and Art of Well-being: Innovations and best practices in mental health care
Mental health care is having a moment. The stigma is easing. There’s bipartisan action to boost funding and ease access. Recognition is increasing of the importance of mental health for both physical health and quality of life.
Almost a quarter of American adults have a prescription for a mental health medication. But one of the biggest challenges in psychiatric treatment is finding the right medication and dosage for an individual patient.
The last thing you want to do in therapy is code-switch. That can happen when people of color feel they have to change or adapt their language or cultural customs to fit in with someone else, or to belong to a different group, or to make someone else feel comfortable.
What does one do when their outside doesn’t quite match their inside? One of the most common misperceptions about transgender people is that they don’t identify as transgender until sometime later in life, at very least not before puberty, but are somehow “groomed” into being something they are not.
Since 2021 the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative has covered the challenges facing people with mental illness and the programs and treatments designed to serve them. WMUK’s Brian O’Keefe spoke with SWMJC freelance reporter Natasha Robinson.
Sergeant Fidel Mireles II, a 25-year veteran of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, remembers well the moment in July when he saw the boy holding a knife in his outstretched hand.
Mental Health Workforce Crisis: Effective approaches to improving the pipeline
Two undergraduate psychology students at Western Michigan University are spending their summer helping to create a youth-driven program that offers community experiences to local teens and opportunities to develop skills from meditation to healthy cooking.
As a medical student, Eric Achtyes really didn’t know what field he should specialize in. But after a six-week rotation in psychiatric medicine, he knew.
Kaitlyn Berry knew helping people would come at a cost. Still, the Western Michigan University grad student didn’t anticipate heading into a mental health counseling career with close to $100,000 in student loan debt hanging over her head.
Not long after Nancy Rubio’s family moved to Kalamazoo, tragedy struck. Her husband was killed in a car crash. Her young son Diego was struggling to cope, so his elementary school connected the family to El Concilio, a local organization that supports the Latinx community, for counseling in his primary language: Spanish.
Trained in the treatment of both physical and mental health needs, PMHNPs serve as a bridge between those worlds.
Demand is high for mental health services across many agencies in Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties, and many peer supporters are ground zero – serving communities that are marginalized, diverse, and in high need.
Their personal trauma with gun violence equips local intervention workers to fight on the front lines against it. But at what cost to their own mental health? How a shift in the traditional approach to therapy supports a group that’s usually reluctant to do it.
A Way Through: Strategies for Youth Mental Health
Mental health issues among American youths are a growing concern — for parents, educators, health officials, and the children themselves.
When social worker Jim Henry met the 7-year-old, she was living with an aunt after her mother had died. The girl was struggling in school. Wasn’t sleeping. Had emotional issues.
What type of support does a child need to recover from the trauma of being shot? A Kalamazoo mother is on a lonely search for that answer.
Eight-year-old Margot Weiner hams it up during the Zoom interview, flooding the chat with emojis and grinning right into the camera. Her brother Jonah is two years older, and Margot wants nothing more than to play with him.
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.
For years, Lesa Brenner has been advocating for educators to address her daughter’s mental health needs. This year, she used Schools of Choice to switch her eighth-grader to Portage Public Schools to see those needs met.
Overloaded and (Often) Unpaid: Caregiving and Mental Wellness
Claudia Holewinski was 16 and her sister Marilyn was 24 when their mother, Mary Beth, was diagnosed with leukemia.
Their lives changed overnight.
When our body or mind, for one reason or another, fails us — these are the people who step in to help. Professional caregivers are the front-line heroes who nurse us back to health, who hold our hands when we are alone or hurt, who administer medicine to heal us, and who help us up when we fall.
But who helps caregivers when they are in need?
Four days a week, Judith Wright pushes her walker to board a bus that takes her to a bustling Sterling Heights center where she mingles with friends, sees her doctor and healthcare team, eats two hot meals and works out in a physical therapy session to build her walking and balance.
Claudia Holewinski was still in high school when she and her 24-year-old sister became caregivers after their mom was diagnosed with leukemia.
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