Watch Bridge’s Lunch Break discussion on youth mental health in Michigan

Bridge Michigan’s monthly Lunch Break series continued Tuesday with a discussion with three experts on how to improve Michigan’s youth mental health treatment system.

More than 100 readers joined us for this discussion. If you missed Tuesday’s chat, you can watch it on demand below.

Bridge Michigan health reporter Robin Erb was joined by Zakia Alavi, staff psychiatrist at LifeWays Community Mental Health in Jackson, Kevin Fischer, executive director of National Alliance on Mental Illness, Michigan Chapter and Timothy Michling, a health affairs research associate at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan for an hour-long discussion.

Bridge’s Lunch Break monthly series focuses on timely topics and statewide issues. Previous discussions have focused on racial equity, the impact of COVID-19 on K-12 education, high water levels in the Great Lakes, the November election, readers’ COVID-19-related questions, Bridge’s coverage plans for 2021, coronavirus vaccine distribution, openness in Michigan government, COVID-19’s impact on higher education, Michigan’s redistricting process,  labor pipeline struggles and climate change and environmental justice.

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Tuesday’s Lunch Break event followed a three-part series of stories published in Bridge this summer about how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated problems with Michigan’s youth mental health system. To view a video that accompanied the series, watch below.

Become a Bridge Club member to regularly receive advance notification of what our nonprofit newsroom is planning and receive member-exclusive benefits — such as free Bridge event tickets, copies of our bimonthly Bridge Book Club selections and more. Member support allows us to offer engagement opportunities like this Lunch Break series.  

Lunch Break will resume in September. Stay tuned for an announcement of the topic and for registration information in the coming days.