Over the past few years, the number of 911 calls involving individuals struggling with mental illness has increased in Detroit.  

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The number of mental health care workers responding to those calls has increased, as well. Those mental health care responders more frequently enter crisis situations along with police officers in Detroit and around the state. But there are also officials who respond to those situations without police officers at all.  

The Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN) established a mobile crisis service last year to provide immediate care to people in need of help. Today, the organization is operating its mobile crisis service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  

To discuss this, DWIHN’s Mobile Crisis Director JaKeya Kellom and Public Affairs Manager Michael McElrath joined The Metro on Wednesday. Kellom says calls to DWIHN’s crisis services have increased from 30 in December to 141 in the month of July.

“I think sometimes when you see an increase in numbers you may think, ‘well is that a good thing, is that a bad thing?’ But for us it’s a good thing because that lets us know there are individuals learning how to use our service, and knowing that it’s available,” Kellom said.

Use the media player above to listen to the full interview with Kellom and McElrath.

More headlines from The Metro on Aug. 28, 2024: 

• Only 45% of Michigan’s Class of 2024 seniors completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, according to the Michigan FAFSA Tracker. Jill Marecki, director of the nonprofit Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars, joined the show to discuss the organization’s scholarship program and an award from the Educational Credit Management Corporation to help students sign up for FAFSA.
• For football fans, it’s an exciting time as we’re getting closer to the kickoff of the NFL season. So close in fact, NFL teams just made their final roster decisions on Tuesday. Justin Rogers, founder of the Detroit Football Network joined The Metro to discuss what we can expect this season.
• Detroit’s District 7 City Council Member Fred Durhal joined the show to discuss the recent opening of the new Tireman-Minock Park, as well as the Motor City Match program to help local entrepreneurs.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

When Lori Tucker-Sullivan’s husband Kevin died from cancer, she took it upon herself to merge her life-long passion of writing with music, a hobby she shared with her late husband. Though her husband was not a musician, the subject of her writing became clear after she heard Yoko Ono talk about life after her husband, John Lennon, was killed. Ono continued to build a name for herself as a multimedia artist and activist, and that inspired Tucker-Sullivan to explore other stories of women in the spotlight who lost their husbands.

Tucker-Sullivan interviewed widows of rock musicians who navigated the complicated aftermath of their partner’s passing. Some of these women’s lives were upended by legal battles, other’s reputations were distorted because of who their husbands were. Like Yoko Ono, many of these women were committed to defining their own narrative. In Tucker-Sullivan’s book “I Can’t Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy,” she documents and shares those stories. She joined Created Equal to discuss what lessons she learned from these women who persevered through all the commotion.

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Guest

Lori Tucker-Sullivan is a music writer and author. She says these women and their stories are a good reminder that life goes on. “…regardless of the depth of your loss, you can keep going, you can find purpose, you can find new love.” She goes on to say, “I hope they take from it that people who 10, 15 years on still have grief in their lives, but it’s not the central focus of their lives.”

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Many older adults want to stay in their homes as they age. But aging in place requires careful consideration and planning by the individual and/or their family.

Making this decision can be difficult for families as they navigate the logistics and challenges that come with an older loved one aging in place and ensuring both financial stability and the person’s safety and well-being.

Today on Created Equal, Wayne State University gerontology professor Amanda Leggett joined the show to discuss what it takes to be ready – from a number of perspectives – for the difficulties that come with aging and aging in place.

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Guest:

Amanda Leggett is an assistant professor in the Institute of Gerontology and Department of Psychology at Wayne State University and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. Her research program focuses on the dementia caregiver stress process and mental health in late-life. 

Leggett spoke about the importance of being able to handle the basic activities of daily life, such as managing finances and basic mobility, and how some symptoms of aging can make it difficult for some older adults to manage those tasks independently. 

“When individuals start to need more assistance in managing these activities, that’s kind of when we start to think about, ‘is this something that the family can help with, or an in-home care aid might be able to help with? Or do we want to start thinking about that transition to a long-term care facility? And I think a big piece of this also really just boils down to safety, we want to make sure that if someone is independent in their home that they are safe,” said Leggett.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

How do you raise young men with healthy masculinity? It’s something author Ruth Whippman explores in her new book, “Boymom: Reimagining Boyhood in the age of impossible masculinity.” 

According to the book, men today often feel they are without solutions for how to act in a range of situations, partly because parents and teachers don’t know what it means to raise boys who are balanced, confident and embrace their masculinity in a healthy way.

Whippman joined The Metro on Thursday to discuss how to address sexism perpetuated by boys and men. She also spoke about how society can create a more positive view of masculinity. 

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“What I didn’t realize, and I found out while researching this book, was that a baby boy is born with his brain actually about a month behind baby girls’ in terms of right brain development. So that’s the part which deals with emotions, and emotional self regulation, and attachment and relationships,” Whippman said. “So baby girls are born a little bit more mature, a little bit more resilient and independent. Whereas boys need a little bit more support with those things. But because of the way that we think about boys, and we raise them, we actually do the complete opposite with them. They kind of need more of that kind of care, but we tend to see them as boys, as tough and sturdy and robust.” 

Positive male role models and healthy masculinity themes are difficult to find in the media, Whippman said. 

“Girls see so much content, which is all about emotions, and relationships,” Whippman said. “And I know this from having boys, if you just let the Netflix algorithm do its thing for a young boy and you don’t intervene, all they see is stories in which you know, there’s a hero, there’s a villain, a good guy and a bad guy, there’s a battle, someone dies and someone’s crowned a hero. So there’s none of that like relationship stuff, that like how you deal with real human beings, how you track somebody else’s emotions.” 

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Whippman.

More headlines from The Metro on July 25, 2024:

• One of the ways cities create more land opportunities for housing is through downzoning. Detroit City Council is working through this process now, changing the zoning of areas to prevent future heavy industry from impacting residents. Council Member Scott Benson joined the show to share more about the process.
• Boxing is one of the oldest contests in the summer Olympic Games. And just like Motown and its musical artists, Detroit has produced some of the world’s greatest in the sport. Many came through Emanuel Steward’s Kronk Boxing Gym. To discuss the impact of Kronk on Detroit and the sport, former professional boxer Tarick Salmaci and Kronk Chief Operating Officer John Lepak joined The Metro.
• Detroit’s Lexus Velodrome has had a hand in supporting the training of track cycling Olympian and Canadian Dylan Bibic. Executive Director of the Lexus Velodrome, Dale Hughes, joined the show to discuss the sports complex and what they offer the community.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.