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.
A solutions-oriented journalism initiative covering mental health issues in Southwest Michigan.
If you are teetering on the edge of a cliff, considering the abyss below, warmline is not for you. You need a hotline. Now. For those in crisis, call 2-1-1 or contact Gryphon Place in Kalamazoo at their crisis hotline, 269.381.HELP. These good people are there for you at all hours, ready to help and prevent the worst. But maybe that’s not you.
By many accounts, the negative societal stigma associated with mental health problems — seeking counseling in particular — is as low as it’s ever been. Experts point to the pandemic’s effect on the rise in telehealth and how that has helped ease many people skittish about receiving help into therapy or how social media has helped raise awareness of mental health problems and provided a space for people to interact with others who are struggling with the same issues.
A new program in Southwest Michigan is combining some tried and true therapies, in a new mix, to help military Veterans find their return to civilian life a bit easier. After a few steps back, a new community garden is almost ready for veterans and volunteers to start planting — and reaping a harvest of help.
Local leaders who work with young people say a generational mental health crisis is looming but not inevitable. To avoid a crisis requires more adequate funding for services – not a new need by any means. The leaders also expressed a need less well-known outside of social service circles: Youth know what they need, and they know what works for them, so providers need to listen more and direct less.
Police responding to a domestic dispute between mother and daughter find a distraught teenager who is cutting herself. A disruptive man in a parking lot appears to be experiencing psychotic delusions. A frantic 911 call comes from a woman worried her husband is suicidal or from someone whose family member has overdosed on drugs.
Last month, Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer Aaron Visser was among 42 Kalamazoo-area police who went through a 40-hour training on 911 calls involving people experiencing a mental-health crisis. Two days after finishing the course, Visser put that training to the test.
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