mental health

Stateside for Tuesday, May 28th, 2013

Stateside Staff — Tue, 28 May 2013 20:41:29 +0000

There are many ideas and strategies being talked about for how to keep young people in Michigan. On today's show: we spoke with one young writer who says it's simply not enough.

And we heard about how refugees, having survived physical and psychological traumas in their home countries, are getting mental health services here in Michigan.

Also, Rick Pluta gave us an update on ex-Justice Diane Hathaway, who was sentenced for fraud in federal court today in Ann Arbor.

Improving refugee mental health in Michigan

Stateside Staff — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:25:47 +0000

Last year, some 8,100 refugees and asylum seekers fled their home countries and came to Michigan hoping to start a new life.

Many of these people might have wanted to stay at home, but war and organized violence made it impossible, and the United States opened its doors to them.

The World Health Organization estimates a full 50 percent of these refugees are suffering from mental illness.

The doctors and therapists who work with these refugees believe that number is too low.

What is life like for these wartime refugees and asylum seekers in Michigan? And what's being done to ease their transition into their new life and help treat these people as they suffer from psychiatric disabilities?

Hussam Abdulkhalleq is the program supervisor at the ACCESS Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center in Dearborn, the largest Arab-American human services non-profit in the nation.

He joined us today in the studio.

Listen to the full interview above.

Michigan aims to identify health risk behaviors

Associated Press — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:27:16 +0000

Michigan is rolling out new guidelines designed to help health providers better identify teens with high-risk behaviors.

The statewide guidelines recommend that adolescents be assessed for health-risk behaviors, such as violence, at least once a year. They also recommend that health care providers use one of four screening tools to ensure adolescents are consistently screened statewide.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says high-risk behaviors are the primary cause of the death or serious injury of about three-quarters of teens.

University of Michigan researchers say 'retail therapy' actually helps combat sadness

Steve Carmody — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 19:09:00 +0000

Feeling the blues?

University of Michigan researchers say so called ‘retail therapy’ can help.

Snyder orders mental health services review

Rick Pluta — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:51:11 +0000

Governor Rick Snyder has called for a review of how Michigan provides mental health services.

The governor has signed two executive orders to come up with recommendations.The executive orders create two separate commissions.

Both of them will be led by Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley.

One major goal is to identify gaps that send people to jails and prisons instead of to programs that could treat their illnesses.

The plans also include teaching police, teachers, and clergy to spot signs of mental illness, earlier intervention for children with mental health issues, and helping more people get into treatment instead of being sent to jail or prison.

Administration officials say this will be the first thorough review of mental health services in Michigan since the state shut down its psychiatric hospitals in favor of community-based programs in the early 1990’s