(dramatic music) - Welcome to "Pressing Matters" here on WCMU.

Let's take a look at what's coming up next.

More women and youth are playing sports, but with more trainings and year-round seasons, some are finding themselves in harm's way.

A look at the rise of injuries and possible ways to prevent them.

Then, hospice volunteers are a light in dark times, but their caring and compassionate nature goes beyond what happens during someone's final days, how their impact leaves a lasting impression.

Plus, it's a new era for WCMU and public broadcasting.

General Manager Rick Westover explains how audience support plays a crucial role today and in the future.

(bright music) - [Physical Therapist] We're seeing more athletes through the door overall.

- More youth than ever are playing sports, and doctors are treating more injuries than ever.

Hi and welcome back to "Pressing Matters."

The demands of youth sports have changed a lot over the years, from more intense training, to year-round seasons.

There are also more girls and women playing in sports than ever.

But doctors say biological factors, like bone density, muscle compositions, and hormones can have an impact on injuries when it comes to male and female athletes.

And while there's never a way to prevent getting hurt altogether, there are ways to minimize risk.

(people speaking indistinctly) - I am very active.

When I was playing soccer, during school season, I was practicing every day of the week.

I do soccer stuff on my own.

I go to the SAC, workout with my dad a lot.

That's one of our things that we do is like family workouts all the time.

- [Stefanie] Sports are a big part of Grace's life.

- I usually do track, I didn't do it last year, because I was focusing on playing varsity soccer, but I've played track.

I played volleyball for a year in middle school.

I played basketball, so I've done a lot.

A lot of hangouts with friends and family.

I love watching sports too.

- [Stefanie] Watching sports is as close as she gets to playing right now after a normal practice took her off the pitch.

- It was five minutes of practice left, so we were just doing, I think it was just a short-sided scrimmage sort of thing with small goals, like very simple, and me and another girl were both going after the ball at the same time and I stepped, like I stopped myself like with a step with my right leg and it twisted weird, and I heard a pop and I fell to the ground.

At first, I didn't think it was gonna be too bad, but I stood up, and when I stood up, my leg couldn't support itself.

So every time I took a step, it would snap back and it couldn't support my weight.

So I think once I got up and started walking, I knew that it was bad, but I just didn't wanna believe it.

- [Stefanie] Grace tore her anterior cruciate ligament, more commonly known as the ACL.

The ACL is a band of tissue that connects the femur or thigh bone to the tibia or shin bone in the knee joint.

- So the ACL is one of the main ligaments in the knee, and it's not a ligament you need to do simple tasks or inline tasks.

So walking, running in a straight line, cycling, swimming, all those things you can do just fine without an ACL.

But the ACL really keeps the knee stable when you're doing cutting, pivoting, jumping and landing type activities.

So that's why we see it most commonly in those sports that involve a lot of that activity, things like soccer and lacrosse and basketball and football.

Because when an athlete goes to do a quick cut or a pivot, the ACL is put under stress, and if the forces on that knee and the way the person's moving is just not ideal at that time, that's when they're set up for an ACL injury.

- [Stefanie] With every sport and activity comes the risk of getting hurt.

But there's research that shows girls have a higher chance of ACL injuries then their male counterparts.

- ACL injuries used to be a lot more common in boys, just because more boys were involved in sports.

As the participation in girls in sports increased, we started to see that girls actually have a higher risk of injury for an ACL tear compared to boys.

And it's about a 1.5 fold increase in that adolescent or high school-age athletes.

And there have been some studies even that show up to a four or eight times risk of these ACL injuries, depending on the sport.

It has to do with a lot of different factors.

So, some of it is anatomical, that girls tend to have a smaller notch, the part of the knee where the ACL lives, and that can predispose them to the ACL tears.

They also tend to have alignment of their legs.

That's what we call more valgus, meaning their knees are closer together, like a knock-kneed appearance, and that puts you at a risk for ACL tears.

And then, they tend to have a little more flexibility or laxity in the knee, and that's even related to hormonal changes.

So, estrogen is a hormone that can have an impact on the ACL, and when the estrogen levels peak, especially during certain phases of the ovulatory cycle, that can increase the laxity of the ACL, make it more loose and potentially more prone to injury.

And then finally, we also see just the muscular balances are different between girls and boys in that girls tend to be more quadriceps dominant, and their hamstrings are weaker relative to their quadriceps, whereas it's a better balance in males.

And because the hamstring tendons are a good protector of the ACL, that relative weakness be a problem for them.

So, there are a lot of different factors that can go into it and it's always hard to predict which girls are gonna have the ACL tears and which aren't.

But we know that there is definitely a propensity for them to be more susceptible to it.

- Being active, playing sports, it's all really important for our wellbeing, but with a heavier focus on competition, more athletes are finding themselves in harm's way.

- I wouldn't say that necessarily the ratios of men to women have changed, but as overall participation has increased, the number of athletes coming through the door is higher.

There's more people playing.

The seasons are longer.

The demands, I think, are higher than they have ever been at younger ages.

And I would say the thing that I've noticed more than just people being injured more frequently is the number of younger people that I'm seeing come through with things that aren't necessarily traumatic injuries, but just use and overuse type of of injuries, especially in growing kids, kids that are really pushing the limits as their bodies are changing drastically.

- The biggest thing that's changed, I think, is the intensity of the sports participation and how often it is year round, and even starting at a pretty young age.

So, sports sampling is something that's really big in our field, especially in the pediatric sports medicine world, where we've learned that having kids, especially in their ages of growth, participate in multiple sports, so different types of sports where they use their bodies in different ways, that helps with those neuromuscular connections and development so that their body doesn't only develop in a certain way or to help them with certain tasks.

And so the sport sampling not only can help with their growth and development, physical development, but it can also reduce the risk of some types of injuries, especially the over-use injuries that tend to come when people are getting involved in a sport year round, at a high level, and when their bodies are still growing and developing.

- [Stefanie] Studies show some athletes are just more susceptible to injuries, but there are ways to help protect from them, like playing multiple sports, because different activities require different muscle movements.

- I think there are some things that we don't always focus on, because they're not seen as directly related to good performance in the sports.

But we're learning that they are really important to having the right body mechanics and protecting yourself from injury.

Some of those things are flexibility and core strength and stability.

So, especially, I feel like in the middle school-aged athletes and the middle-aged athletes, sometimes the stretching gets pushed off to the side.

You know, the younger kids just wanna get going and start playing their sport and doing things, and so stretching, if it even happens during a sport, is usually kind of an afterthought or rushed through.

And then in middle age, sometimes, even though we understand the need for stretching, we have such a limited time to get it done that you wanna just get going.

And then core stability is something that even came out, I think, when I was an athlete, is just becoming more of a focus in protection.

Your body weight all above your lower extremities will affect what happens to your knees, to your ankles, to your hips, all of that.

And so, people can have really strong legs, but if they can't control what happens with the top half of their body as they're moving through space and doing all these complex maneuvers, that can really throw off the movement of their joints below too.

- There's no 100% prevention, but you can substantially decrease the risk of injury by having a robust and comprehensive program that addresses the major factors that would put you at risk being strong enough, being agile enough, having good neuromuscular control and having quality movement that mitigates some of the positions or the forces that are most likely to lead to injury.

(people speaking indistinctly) - [Stefanie] Grace's injury required surgery.

She spent the past few months in physical therapy.

- I think the first time I went to physical therapy was probably a week after surgery.

A lot of the exercise I did, stationary exercises, the main ones that I did were leg lifts and then just sitting on the ground with my legs straight and flexing my quad, 'cause I lost so much quad muscle.

I think PT is really gonna help me building the muscle and getting the strength back into my legs.

And also, later in recovery here at PT, I'm gonna learn how to fall correctly so you don't injure yourself in situations where you could try to keep yourself up instead of falling, you might as well just fall and not take the chance of injuring yourself.

- The things that really need to happen in terms of recovery and successful recovery from an ACL in particular are just consistency.

It's very, very much the same as any other preparation that you would do for sport, aside from an injury, is just be consistent with the things that you need to do in order to be prepared in every facet of the game.

When it comes to rehab, it's building strength, building power, agility, stability through the system, not just through the knee, but through the trunk and supporting the hips and through the entire lower extremity, how you're transferring forces and accommodating at all different types of demands.

And she's up every day, and she's doing the right things.

She's pushing hard, and she's staying committed outside of here.

In order to have a successful rehab, it takes a lot of effort consistently over nine plus months in order to be ready psychologically once you get back to the point at which it's time to go.

- [Stefanie] Recovery time for injuries is different for everyone.

And it's not just getting back physically that can be a challenge, it can be a struggle mentally too.

But there are ways athletes can feel supported even if they can't play yet.

- Their friends are all soccer players and their teammates.

And then if they get an injury where they can't be playing with their team for half a year or a year, that has a huge toll on them, and it can lead to anxiety and depression and questioning of their identity and all those sorts of things.

It's important to reengage these athletes with their teams in safe ways along the way.

So where it used to be like, you're out of sports, you can't go see your soccer team, you need to stay away, because we don't wanna risk you doing something more than you're supposed to.

Right now, we work a lot with patients to say, "Okay, you're at a stage where maybe early on, "all you're doing is going to the practices "and helping out as an assistant coach or a manager "or just kinda bringing the balls around "and being there to support your teammates.

"But later on you may be able "to do some of your PT exercises on the sidelines, "so that you're there and stretching with them.

"And then you may be able to do "some of the conditioning with them, "but you just stay out of a contact activity."

So we try to work that in, so that they can still feel part of the team, they can still feel like it's part of their identity, but also do it without putting themselves too much at risk.

- Maybe the most important thing is just having a solid support system around you, family and friends and coaches that have your back.

If you're going through it and you feel like, man, I'm already going through this, and it's a long process to begin with and doing all this work behind the scenes, no one knows, and it can get quite lonely.

But to have friends and family and coaches that are behind you, I think, is probably the biggest, positive thing you can have going for you as someone who's trying to bounce back from a major injury.

- [Stefanie] Experts agree the benefits of playing sports, a healthy and active lifestyle, are all critical pieces for our overall wellbeing.

But, sometimes there are really important lessons that are learned off the court or the field that can also make a difference in someone's life.

- Sometimes I think these things help us grow and find new roots that we wanna follow that we may never have known about otherwise.

But I would just encourage, especially the young women, to not give up on their sports involvement when they see some of these challenges.

Let it take them wherever they're gonna go and whatever new route they may find, but there are so many huge benefits between your physical health, your mental development, your resilience, your friendships.

For me, just seeing so many women and girls engaged in sports is really an exciting thing.

- I'm trying not to focus in on it at all, because I don't want to let that fear affect me playing sports again, 'cause I'm just gonna play sports and I'm gonna enjoy it, and I'm not gonna let it make me not play sports, because it's either you sit outta sports with the fear of it or sit outta sports with it happening again, but after you've already went back to playing sports.

So I'm not letting it come into my head at all.

I'm not letting it control me.

- Many schools are now adding weight and strength-training options, which Dr.

Crawford says is encouraging, because it can help with injury prevention.

She also says athletes with certain injuries like ACL tears are more susceptible to it happening again, especially if a player returns too soon after an injury.

- [Hospice Volunteer] What animals did they have growing up?

What do they do for work, what their grandkids are doing?

All of these things is... I like to just try to get them to talk, 'cause everybody has a story.

Everybody wants their story to be heard and told.

- When most people hear "hospice," they think of the very end of life.

But volunteers and families say it's about dignity, connection, and kindness until the last moment and beyond.

Hospice care is often misunderstood as something that only happens in someone's final days.

But for the families and the volunteers who serve them, it's so much more.

And with Michigan's population getting older, the need for hospice and for the volunteers who make it possible has never been greater.

Jamie Menkowitz shows us how hospice volunteers are filling the gaps and bringing comfort to families across the state.

- [Jamie] Like so many daughters, Hillary Cash spent years helping her parents navigate illness.

Last spring, she, her brothers, and their mother faced the hardest decision yet, whether to call in hospice care for their dad.

- So my dad's health journey has been a long time coming.

13 years before he passed away, he had his first stroke.

So starting at that time, my family very much questioned many times what was the best for my dad in his health journey and how to take care of him.

For the first 10 years or so, he was still well enough that my mom could take care of him and take care of his basic needs and assist him when needed.

And then within eight weeks of each other, he had two consecutive strokes that put him needing full-time care.

And we actually explored hospice a couple years ago, but it wasn't the right time.

They weren't to that point in his health journey.

This spring, early spring, he needed surgery, and every time he went to go get his blood checked, he was never well enough to have surgery.

So a kind doctor, after reading my dad's documents at the hospital, kindly said to my mom, "I think you should explore hospice."

So at this time, my mom, I think through much prayer and consideration, sat us kids down, or called all of us and just said, "This doctor suggested hospice.

What do you think?"

I have two older brothers, and we all kind of said, "Finally, Mom, I think this is the right choice."

- [Jamie] Their family was not alone in this tough decision.

Michigan is getting older.

The state's poll in healthy aging shows that by 2030, one in four residents will be over the age of 60.

Nearly half of Medicare patients here already use hospice at the end of life.

Kathy Lietaert oversees volunteers for Hospice of Michigan in Arbor Hospice across the state.

- Back in the 80s, before hospice care was a paid benefit through Medicare or through private insurance companies, it was all volunteer.

The doctors, the nurses, anyone who cared for a family with somebody that was dying was done in communities, so they wanted to maintain that community aspect.

- [Jamie] Hospice isn't just a service for patients, it's care for the whole family.

Doctors and nurses handle the medical side, but volunteers step into the quiet spaces with something just as vital, their presence.

- They provide what the clinical staff doesn't, and that's companionship with the patients.

It's whatever they want to do.

You know, they can read a book, they can hold a hand, they can share a story.

It's the true companionship in the heart of what maybe a patient and family needs at end of life.

- When we initially sat down with the hospice person, they explained to us that hospice doesn't do preventative care, they just do comfort care.

And I think that took my mom a little time to accept that.

I think she, to accept, okay, we're not gonna longer do anything to help him, we're just gonna help have him be comforted in life was a big adjustment for her, but I think they very much helped with that transition.

- [Jamie] For many volunteers, that means simply being present, listening, talking, and standing vigil when needed.

Some, like Shiloh Defreese, even bring therapy dogs along.

Her golden retriever, Remy, sits quietly at bedsides, offering comfort only an animal can give.

- Yeah, I listen a lot.

I've heard so many stories.

I hear stories about livestock farming in the 1930s.

There's some special stuff there, how people have met their spouses, different games that they love to play, favorite foods, all of these things.

We just talk about anything and everything.

One of my favorites was talking about roller skating and dancing with boys in high school and getting in trouble when they went back home, and yeah.

- [Jamie] Some volunteers even stay with patients during their final hours, offering a calm hand to hold.

- Well, I did a vigil for one of my closest patients, and he tried so hard to just be himself like, "Hey, how you doing," when I got there, you know?

And I'm like, "No, no, we're just here to relax "and just hold your hand and you just rest," you know?

And for him to be like, "Okay, I like that," that was really nice to be there.

- [Jamie] Marsha Barnhart records patient stories, so families can keep them forever.

- And that is a keepsake that will go on for generations.

I often tell people I interview that people that are not born yet are going to see this story, and they're going to see what their great-grandmother looked like and how her eyes twinkled and her lip lifted up when she smiled a certain way, and you won't get that any other way.

This is an encapsulation of a time that a great-grandchild will see.

That's pretty special.

- [Jamie] During the pandemic, when visits stopped, volunteers found new ways to connect, like handwritten cards that now fill memory boxes.

- Most recently, we had a patient on services for about at least six months, and the volunteer was writing cards to the patient the whole time.

And at some point the patient said, "I'd really like to meet this person "who's sending me cards."

So then the volunteer eventually met the patient and the husband, and I think it was a lasting impact, because that patient did pass, and the husband still has all those cards to remember that by.

- [Jamie] Sometimes it's as simple as a grocery run or a pharmacy pickup.

Hospice workers and volunteers both do the little things families didn't know they'd need until they're needed most.

For families, hospice means they don't have to walk alone, not during their loved one's final days and not in the months that follow.

- One thing I'm appreciative is that hospice came in and treated him like a person, that he just was a patient to them.

They got to know him and they cared for him.

- [Jamie] That's why volunteers matter so much.

Hospice of Michigan alone relies on more than 600 trained volunteers to cover 50 counties, but even that isn't enough to meet the growing demand statewide.

Most people need care, and fewer workers are available to give it, making volunteers an essential lifeline for patients and families.

- I think that the day that my dad passed away, I know they gifted my mom a little bereavement box with some things in it that where a comfort to my mom and little keepsakes that she could have and then resources that she could use in the future, but also, didn't overwhelm her with information, knew that it was still in the moment.

- [Jamie] From bedside vigils to grief counseling that lasts more than a year, hospice helps families after every first after loss, the first birthday, the first anniversary, the first holiday.

For Hillary and her family, it comes down to gratitude.

- I think just a simple thank you, thank you for coming in at a time that my family needed them, at a time that we will always appreciate.

My dad only ended up being in hospice for a couple months, and in those months, I think my mom made good relationships with the people.

She felt cared for by them.

And again, just so thankful for how they treated my dad in his last couple weeks that he was on earth.

- [Jamie] And for the volunteers, it's not just giving their time, it's an experience that changes their hearts and their outlook on life.

- Life goes pretty quick, and you want to try to minimize regrets, because I've been with some people who've told them my story, and they had some terrible regrets that they unburdened at the end.

So, it's made me realize that life goes fast.

Be alive while you're here.

Try to do good and have a life of purpose.

- It's rewarding to talk to these people and to be able to pass on their stories, and I very much enjoy that, just seeing them at a time that most people consider sad or depressing or at the end of life, right?

And they're so full of life, they want to tell their story, and they want to be remembered, and they want to be known.

And so, to be part of that is just amazing - [Jamie] For Hillary and her family, those small acts of care, the kindness at the end, aren't just memories of her father's last days through the way his life continues to be honored and carried forward.

- I think it's through the little moments and the memories that we share and the little things that we do in honor of my dad that continue to carry him on for all of us.

(gentle music) - Organizations, like Hospice of Michigan and many others, welcome compassionate people who want to make a difference in someone's final chapter.

Here's how you can help.

Contact your local hospice about volunteer opportunities, apply and complete specialized training.

Then, choose a role that fits you, from patient companionship to caregiver relief or administrative support, there's always room for another helping hand.

October 1st of this year marked a significant milestone for WCMU.

We are officially operating in a new era of public broadcasting, one that does not receive any federal funding, not for PBS or NPR.

But our commitment to our listeners and supporters is unwavering.

And as we've experienced the support we're getting back from you is unlike any we've ever seen before.

Back with me now is WCMU General Manager Rick Westover.

- Hi, Stefanie.

- Hi, Rick.

Can you explain to us what these last few weeks and months have been like?

- It's been a whirlwind for sure.

We're figuring it out day by day, but we're encouraging our audience to step forward and support us.

You know, if... As we've said many, many times, they're the most important support that we receive, and it is more true than it ever has been before.

And they're coming through.

Our first million dollars in support came through one week after the end of our first quarter.

We wanna see that continue, but it's a long road here through the fiscal year without federal funding for the first time in like a couple of generations.

Doing what we can to save money, but then encouraging our audience to step forward.

And when folks come up and they say, "What can we do?"

I say, if you've made a donation before, think about increasing it by 50% if that's possible for you.

And we're also trying to grow the membership, finding those new donors to help us bring in more support.

- Absolutely.

Well, the cuts have hits some stations across the country really hard from closures, layoffs, job cuts.

Those are losses that really deeply impact communities.

Where does WCMU stand financially and how have we, in our communities, been impacted so far?

- Sure, sure, so we've been fortunate to be very frugal and very conservative in our savings.

We have a considerable reserve.

We have endowments that actually have been growing for a while, and we've kind of just left to do that, so we have some support to draw from there.

We were able to carry forward almost $2 million from last year's budget.

So, in this situation, we're poised about as well as we can be.

But that said, there's still $1.6 million that we don't have access to.

We can't just burn through all of our reserves this year.

We need to do what we can to offer ourselves more room to kind of work our way into this new normal and encourage people to come forward and offer support to help bridge that gap.

So, while we have a little bit more breathing room than some stations, some are on the bubble, will they stay on, will they not?

We aren't going anywhere, and we need our audience to continue to step forward like they have, and we're so grateful for those that have already done that.

- Yeah, well, WCMU continues to hold fundraiser drives, both on radio and on television.

And so, Rick, can you real quick explain what are the many ways that supporters can continue to help WCMU?

- Sure.

Come in and participate in an event.

When you find a program that you love, tell a friend about it.

I actually had somebody reach out to us when we were in Petoskey recently for the 40th anniversary of The Juke Joint, celebrating that.

And the gentleman said, "You know, I have a friend "that I know listens like I do.

"I donate.

I asked him to donate."

And really, it comes down to that.

If we want to see this continue in our communities, we, all of us, have to work together to make that possible, and that's the kind of action that we're looking for.

If you know somebody that listens and enjoys, has the means to make a gift, encourage 'em to do what you do and offer support too.

- Great, thank you so much, Rick.

- Thank you.

- Again, thank you for being here today.

That wraps up this edition of "Pressing Matters" here on WCMU.

Again, thank you all for watching and for your continued support for WCMU.

(bright music)