Loan Repayment Options from NHSC

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) is now accepting applications for three loan repayment programs. Each program has a different award level and varying eligibility. As HealthWest employees, you may qualify. Click the link below to learn more about these programs.

New Password Manager

Keeper is a service that helps keep track of and manage all of your passwords for the different sites and services we use in day to day work in one central place. The Keeper "vault" can be accessed by web, browser extension, phone app, or desktop program!  Click below to learn how you can set up Keeper.

Staff Appreciation Day

Thank you to the FunD committee for helping organize and sponsor a special bagel delivery to HealthWest campuses last Friday for Staff Appreciation Day!

HealthWest consumers meet with lawmakers during Disability Advocacy Day

A group of five HealthWest consumers traveled to Lansing on Tuesday, March 7, to participate in Disability Advocacy Day.

During the event, the group was able to meet with our local state lawmakers and share their needs. They were able to speak with State Reps. Will Snyder and Greg VanWoerkom and the staff of Sen. Jon Bumstead.

The group also was able to connect with others from around the state who face similar obstacles, take a tour of the Capitol and spend time in both the House and Senate office buildings.

Each individual took a customized postcard with them to leave with lawmakers outlining the issues they'd like the government to address. Topics included:

Kristin Kleinheksel:

• Violence and guns.
• Making sure people living with mental health concerns have access to the help they need.

Cherry Fouty:

• The rising cost of living.
• Ensuring Social Security is enough to cover their needs, so they don't have to choose between food and medications.

Christopher Ware:

• Increasing support for parents raising children with disabilities.
• Making more help available for kids with disabilities before they get into trouble.

Craig Franklin:

• Ensuring buildings, especially restrooms, are accessible to people with disabilities.
• More support for people with disabilities who want to work.

Dwayne Harris:

• Public transportation, especially bussing, helps him to live independently.
• Rising costs and job losses.

New printable handout library now available on the Compass

HealthWest staff can now easily access HealthWest handouts that can be printed on demand. The library on the Compass homepage provides access to the most recent groups flyers, event flyers, program handouts, printable program descriptions and more.

The goal of this library is to provide staff with quick access to information that can be easily shared with the individuals we serve. The print-on-demand route also allows us to update materials more easily when changes are made and avoid expensive reprints of items like rack cards.

You can access the library at the top of the homepage or by clicking here. Need a new handout created? You can access the Marketing Request Form on the Compass or by clicking here.

Have a tech idea or recommendation? Submit it to the tech team!

Have an idea where technology could provide cost savings, efficiencies or benefits to the organization, teams, and individuals we serve? Submit it using the new Technology Suggestion Form.

Our goal is to modernize existing processes, create new processes using current or new technology, and connect existing technology to current processes to provide streamlined solutions. Your ideas will help drive these discussions!

Click the button below to suggest your idea. You can also find the form on the Compass homepage. Suggestions will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

Join us as we kick off the 2023 LGBTQ+ Panel series!

Supporting LGBTQ+ Students

Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 6:00 PM

First Congregational Church 

1201 Jefferson Street Muskegon, MI 49441

In this first panel, we will hear from local educators and counselors working in our Muskegon-area schools. This discussion will highlight the current education system and how we can support LGBTQ+-identified students.

What is the Sexuality and Gender Advocates Committee? 

SAGA’s mission is to increase HealthWest’s competency as an employer, service provider and community partner to support individuals from the LGBTQ+/SOGIE Community. We are a branch of the TIDE Committee and work closely with them on our assigned objectives in the Agency Strategic Plan. Our committee is made up of members of the LGBTQ+/SOGIE Community as well as amazing allies with a passion for creating change!

LGBTQ+: Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning

SOGIE: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression

Contact Felipe Trevino to learn more about how to join SAGA.

Suicide Safer Care is an evidence-based approach to assisting those with thoughts of taking their own life. Suicide Safer Care started over 20 years ago at Henry Ford Health System here in Michigan with stunning results. Now Suicide Safer Care is practiced in health systems around the world. HealthWest’s rollout of Suicide Safer Care will not be nearly as challenging as a larger health system such as Spectrum/Corewell Health with its 25,000 employees. The fact that we are behavioral health providers also gives us some advantages, but there are still areas where we can improve. 

Below are a few pieces of training you can participate in now. While trainings are a part of the Suicide Safer Care model and are important, training is not the main focus. We need to re-examine how we approach suicide as an individual staff person, as a teams, as an agency, and as a community member. Soon each team will have its own Suicide Safer Care goals. This will help to shift our social work culture’s thoughts about helping. Stay tuned! More will follow. Thank you for all that you do!

- The Suicide Safer Care Team

Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR):

Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) training helps health and behavioral health professionals feel confident in providing compassionate care to people at risk for suicide. AMSR is based on the latest research designed to support safer suicide care practices. The AMSR research-informed risk formulation model offers key strategies to navigate challenging conversations and systemic barriers. AMSR teaches a prevention-oriented risk approach focused on planning, not predicting.

AMSR teaches best practices in caring, confident suicide prevention care. HealthWest is fully invested in our Suicide Safer Care approach to decreasing or eliminating deaths by suicide and suicide attempts in those we serve. This is more than just a required training. This is part of a larger change in our workplace culture and our approach to preventing death by suicide. We thank you, our staff, for being a part of this work.

We face many challenges when working with individuals who are at risk of suicide. Some individuals may not disclose their thoughts of suicide. If they do, the health care provider must often make judgment calls about unpredictable outcomes, often with insufficient or contradictory information. AMSR’s research-informed risk formulation model will help you feel confident navigating challenging conversations and offers vital strategies for providing compassionate care to people at risk for suicide.

Two HealthWest staff members are now certified AMSR trainers, Taylor Carey and Jessica Higgins. They are excited about the information that they will share with you!

AMSR training is now available for master-level clinical staff. 

• Jump into Relias and register for one of 4 AMSR classes between now and June
• We do have social work CEs available
• This is an in-person, 8-hour training

For our non-master level staff who work directly with the people we serve, your AMSR training is coming soon!  

SafeTALK

Learn and practice powerful, life-saving skills in just 3.5 hours. Using a simple yet effective model, SafeTALK empowers everyone to make a difference. With over 120,000 people attending SafeTALK each year, it is the world’s fastest-growing suicide prevention training. This training is a deeper dive than QPR. QPR has laid the foundation of suicide prevention and SafeTALK brings us a little further into the practice of saving lives.