Caring for kids: Advocating for the mental and physical care of children - Crain's Detroit Business

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On this monthly radio program, The Children’s Foundation President and CEO Larry Burns talks to community, government and business leaders about issues related to children’s health and wellness. 

Guests for this discussion were Dr. Robert Davies, President, Central Michigan University; Mark Hilinski, Co-Founder, Hilinski’s Hope; and Luanne Thomas Ewald, Chief Operating Officer, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital.

The hour-long show typically airs at 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month on WJR 760AM. Here’s a summary of the show that aired April 28th; listen to the entire episode, and archived episodes, at yourchildrensfoundation.org/caring-for-kids.

Larry Burns: What’s the current situation at Central Michigan University as it relates to the COVID-19 crisis?

Robert Davies: Our main goal is to keep CMU open and operational. I am extremely proud of the way that our faculty moved to remote learning—literally within two days. This was possible because last year we had the polar vortex and after having to cancel class for many days, the faculty approached us with the goal to have a system in place that allows us to quickly move to remote learning. We are doing everything we can to flatten the curve and keep our community healthy. We make decisions based on fact and data and focus on living up to our leadership standards that put students first.

Burns: What are you doing to stay connected to students and one another?

Davies: We have empowered and engaged technology in new and aggressive ways. We’re doing a lot of meetings through WebEx. Our students are extremely adaptable to social media. I do have the honor and privilege of not only being president of the university, but also a parent of one of our students. She is now at home but continuing to engage with her fellow classmates in creative ways. For example, a Netflix group allows them to watch movies together even though they are scattered throughout the country. Our faculty is doing the same thing. I just received a video from one of our dance professors who is teaching dance to a group of ten students remotely. We’re now looking at future decisions and the use of technology as a strategic differentiator for our university.

Burns: Do you have any sense of how this is impacting your athletic department?

Davies: The focus of Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Michael Alford and the coaches is entirely on the student athlete. Right now they’re making sure that students are maintaining academic progress as well as continuing to train individually for their sports. I’m on a conference call with the Mid-American Conference presidents on about a weekly basis. We’re building contingency plans for all sorts of different makeups. Athletics is an important part of the American culture but we are also very attuned to the fact that we need to do this safely. We will follow the guidelines of the MAC and the NCAA.

Burns: What are you most excited about in regards to CMU and Southeastern Michigan?

Davies: The growth and the commitment that CMU has in Detroit is long-standing. I’m looking forward to expanding in Detroit and working with K-12 organizations, nonprofits and business entities. We have the 777 Woodward location as the hub for activities to engage potential students and to be the home for students when they return to Detroit for internships and for our alumni. We are developing partnerships with Detroit Police Athletic League (Detroit PAL) program and other nonprofit organizations to support efforts in Detroit. I look forward to being a leader in that area.

Larry Burns: Tell us about your foundation and some of the things you’re most proud of.

Mark Hilinski: Hilinski’s Hope was founded a couple of weeks after my son Tyler committed suicide to shine a light on and reduce the stigma of mental illness by talking about it. The reason we put it together so quickly was that we had a need to focus our energies on something that would help other people. Our focus is on student athletes, not to exclude anybody, it’s just to focus where we think we have more impact. To date we’ve visited over 40 schools in the country—colleges, universities and high schools—to bring our story to them.

Burns: What are some of the things that you’re doing?

Hilinski: There are a few programs that we bring to schools. We work with Step UP!, which is an NCAA-approved bystander awareness program. If someone is struggling but can’t ask for help, we try to train their teammates and classmates on how to spot and address some of the issues they may see. Another program is Behind Happy Faces. Mental health advocate Ross Szabo devised the Behind Happy Faces curriculum to teach us to deal with our own mental health issues. He uses it to impart effective coping skills and help us recognize the difference between being anxious and being clinically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder—that’s an important facet. We also tell Tyler’s story as an opening to bring awareness to suicide and mental health.

Burns: With COVID-19 isolation some may be suffering from mental issues. What can we do in this odd time we find ourselves in?

Hilinski: Kids depend on scheduling and without that structure they are left with a lot of time on their hands. This downtime with COVID-19 really does force families together and gives parents an opportunity to dig a little deeper to see how your kids are handling the crisis that we’re in. Not just in their general daily lives, but to parlay those conversations into deeper mental health questions and offer help to your family members. I think that’s an opportunity that we have during the COVID-19 crisis.

Hilinski’s Hope also developed a podcast hosted by Dr. Josie Nicholson, a sports psychologist at the University of Mississippi. Each episode addresses different issues as professional licensed mental health practitioners see them and provides some guidance. It’s not a lecture series, it’s not anything but a conversation about student athletes and how to address their mental health.

Larry Burns: Any advice for a parent or grandparent facing things that they’re just not sure how to deal with?

Hilinski: The advice that we give constantly is trust your gut. Don’t be afraid to talk, don’t think you can cause somebody to have a mental illness by asking how they’re doing. Don’t wait, don’t think it’s going to get better on its own. It could be very innocuous and simply a phase people are going through, but talk, ask the questions. Be specific. And don’t let go.

Larry Burns: How is the environment in Ann Arbor with the COVID-19 crisis?

Luanne Thomas Ewald: It is an amazing group of people and I’m in awe of the things that they do every single day. As we entered this crisis, we started screening visitors. The security team is really on the front line as families and visitors come into the hospital—we know in these times that that’s very difficult. Most children’s hospitals have a family-centered care environment. We’ve had to go down to one parent at the bedside. It’s been difficult. Our social workers, our security teams and our environmental service workers have come together to focus on the kids. We see those stories in the media; I’m lucky I get to see them firsthand every day.

Burns: What have you done as it relates to adults you’re taking care of?

Thomas Ewald: Everyone is jumping in to help. It’s just been wonderful to see the physicians and the nurses on the pediatric side really step up to help their adult counterparts when they can. What we’re doing now is working with the Michigan Hospital Association and the state of Michigan and others to really see if we need to also create more capacity within the state. We have been working over the past couple of weeks to do the analysis, to look at plans to make sure that people in our state are taken care of when they need to be taken care of.

Burns: Mott and The Children’s Foundation purchased 200 blood pressure monitor devices for expecting moms. How is that working out?

Thomas Ewald: This crisis has forced us to look at processes that could be done from home—having women monitor their blood pressure from home is one of those things. Our team is continuing to distribute blood pressure monitors to our pregnant moms. We’re trying to make sure that everyone is safe and not having to expose themselves to coronavirus in a hospital setting.

Burns: What are some things you’re looking forward to getting involved in at Mott?

Thomas Ewald: Forging relationships is a top priority. We need to make sure kids throughout the state are being taken care of by the wonderful Michigan protocols—Mott protocols. Last year Michigan Medicine signed a partnership agreement with Sparrow Medical Group. We want to continue relationship building with existing partners like Allegiance, Jackson and Bronson. Those are some key partners for us. Secondly, we are figuring how we are going to help make an impact on adolescent and pediatric mental health in this state. Those are the two big areas. We know that something big and bold needs to happen in that space. If we’ve learned anything through this crisis—the impact of eHealth, telemedicine and telepsychiatric care—is that those components can help us provide the care that our kids and adolescents need in the state of Michigan. I think that’s our responsibility. We have to find some answers.

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