CURIS
Public Health Advocacy
2020-2021
Projects
Washtenaw Alive: Survey
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Washtenaw Alive: Policy
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SafeHouse Center
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Washtenaw Health Initiative
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NAMI: Washtenaw County
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Track My Exposure
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Track My Exposure was a startup questionnaire to help people calculate their risk of COVID-19 based on their daily habits and share the results with their friends. Committee members wrote blog posts on several COVID-19 related topics like COVID-19 in greek life, study spots, college students’ experiences, and the value of providing a risk score rather than relying on cognitive biases.
Partnered with Washtenaw Alive Suicide Coalition, WA Survey committee is dedicated to providing mental health support to UofM students. Because of prevalence of mental health issues among college students and the difficulty of a remote school environment, our committee is creating an interactive mental health resource website for students. We will also be conducting surveys on awareness of resources available, how useful students feel those resources are and how COVID-19 has affected mental health.
The SafeHouse Center is a non-profit organization that provides support and advocacy services to .CURIS is currently working to help SafeHouse Center spread awareness about their resources and mission through social media and graphic design. We are currently working on graphics and social media campaigns to spread awareness about sexual assault, domestic violence, and LGBTQIA+ resources.
The Washtenaw Health Initiative (WHI) is “a voluntary collaboration between more than 200 individual and organizational stakeholders dedicated to improving the health of low-income, uninsured, and under-insured populations across Washtenaw County, Michigan.” In the summer of 2021, the Washtenaw Health Initiative will celebrate its tenth anniversary. At that event, the WHI would like to highlight major accomplishments and reinvigorate the community around shared objectives. To identify and better understand major accomplishments, as well as the challenges ahead, the committee interviewed key stakeholders, collected important historical documents to be used in the construction of an interactive timeline, and checked back on early projects to learn how they’ve evolved over time and what the impact has been.
We partnered with NAMI (Michigan), the National Alliance on Mental Illness, to help them complete a mental health services assessment for the Ypsilanti and Whitmore Lake areas. The mental health services assessment was needed to gain a better understanding of what resources are needed in these areas. The assessment included a survey, focus groups, and interviews with community members. Our committee helped review and edit the survey as well as the questions designed for the focus groups.
We are partnered with The Bethany Anne Galdes Foundation to help them decipher Michigan’s mental health policies as they apply to minors. The Bethany Anne Galdes Foundation has a goal of founding the Bethany House as an alternative to hospitalization for minors struggling with depression. Our research has helped determine what kinds of policy changes are necessary to support both evidence-based, depression-specific inpatient treatment and alternative options to hospitalization in crisis situations.
