- [Host] Coming up on "One Detroit," our future of work series examines a new cutting-edge facility that's enhancing the nursing program at University of Detroit Mercy.

Plus, we'll take a closer look at a medical breakthrough for the treatment of sickle cell disease.

Also ahead, we'll show you the efforts underway in Michigan to raise awareness about teen dating violence.

And if you're looking for something to do this weekend, we have a list of options for you.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Bear Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco: serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Announcer 2] Support for this program is provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

- [Announcer 3] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEfoundation.com to learn more.

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(upbeat music) - [Host] Just ahead on "One Detroit," we'll examine the pros and cons of a newly approved gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease.

Plus, students in a Macomb County school get a lesson on preventing teen dating violence and abuse.

And Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ offer some suggestions on how you can spend this weekend and beyond in metro Detroit.

But first up, a future of work report on a new educational training facility at University of Detroit Mercy.

It's called the STAR Center, which stands for Simulation Technology and Research.

The state-of-the-art Facility is providing hands-on training for nursing students and giving them a headstart on the skills needed to succeed in the medical field.

"One Detroit" contributor Daijah Moss has the story.

(ambient music) - We are here at the University of Detroit Mercy in the STAR Center, which is a new simulator program.

Tell me about it, how did it get started?

- We started construction of the STAR Center in 2021, 22, and it opened officially last June, June of '23.

The STAR Center, which is really Simulation Technology and Research Center, really grew from some of our early simulation that we had done in the McAuley School of Nursing.

In 2010, we opened our first simulation center, which was really two small rooms, about 1200 square feet.

We visioned a center that was larger, that would be able to accommodate all of our programs, physician assistant, nurse anesthesia.

- What it represents for our students, as Dean Baiardi alluded to, is their ability to practice some of these real key skills before they get to have that sort of one-on-one in the hospital with patients in real time.

It's an opportunity for students to really engage in communication and feel comfortable and safe with the skills that they're learning.

- When I learned how to integrate that clinical information based on the learner level of knowledge, my whole world opened up for me as well as for the students because now I understood the importance of tailoring certain experiences to the learner levels experience.

- Since I'm in fundamentals, we were fixing the patient's room up, make sure the patient was comfortable, checking the patient's vital signs and things like that.

So I think it was very helpful for when I was actually going back to clinical and having to retake vital signs.

It was actually easier for me to take the vital signs and being able to make sure my patient is comfortable in their room and everything.

- As long as the students are meeting the learning objectives, as long as the students are able to collaborate and communicate and foster relationships, the learning can still take place.

And just making sure everyone have the resources that they need, making sure that the technology is together, the equipment together, and most important, making sure that we are building in the curriculum that is what is needed for our community.

- What makes this program or this space unique compared to the previous one that was on campus or others that you've seen?

- So we developed and designed the center to really mimic a hospital unit.

We have the rooms designed with real oxygen, real compression, so that you can actually, truly suction someone or simulate that kind of experience, as well as really ensuring that we had a high tech trauma area so that students could have experience in a simulated operating room or an emergency room.

- The mannequin for sure is more high tech.

It seems like a real person.

It does a lot more than the other mannequin did.

The technology that is available to us now, that's very helpful.

Having the patient's chart accessible to us.

We can read the notes, we can see their medications, we can see prior assessments.

And that's very helpful in going about planning your care for the patient that you're dealing with.

And I also feel like the broadcasting to the other students in the room, being able to watch what our peers did prior to be able to know where we have to take off from there.

- University of Detroit Mercy is one of the top ranked colleges for nursing in the state of Michigan.

So how are you combating the stereotypes or the impressions that people have received from the pandemic?

How are you combating those things with your students and keeping them engaged and wanting to be a part of the nursing field?

- It has been a challenge.

We've had to do some new things in terms of how we interact with our students.

One of the things that we've really focused on is our student success and engagement.

And so we have a dedicated office to that.

- As long as I have contributed to a confident graduate nurse, that's my job.

I feel like my job is done.

And I would be proud of them either way, whatever they decided to do when they entered the workforce.

I give them the tools to make the right decisions for themselves and for each other.

- With simulation, the end result is to improve patient outcomes.

That's what this is all about.

It's about improving our community, and simulation is just a tool to get us there.

And having that sense of self is the best thing I think the students can gain from this.

- I do feel supported by the clinical instructor, our professors.

They're always open to us if we have any issues or anything we wanna address to just take it up with them.

So there is definitely a strong support for the students here.

- We also learn how to be an actual good nurse aside of like doing the IVs and the standard patient care.

We learned how to actually care for our patient and learn what our patient needs and being able to kind of just have sympathy for everyone.

- I can see the STAR Center being a benchmark program for all other programs to pattern their day-to-day operations behind us, because we are reflecting what's happening in the community and what the needs of patients are in the community.

- I feel like with technology and just applying the real life aspects to it helps it become even more effective.

(machine beeping) - [Student] What's her heart rate?

105?

- [Student 2] And her blood pressure is off.

- [Host] More than 100,000 Americans, most of whom are black, are living with sickle cell disease.

Recently the Food and Drug Administration approved two types of groundbreaking gene therapies to treat the debilitating pain caused by the blood disorder.

It's the first time gene editing has been used to improve a human illness.

"American Black Journal" host and "One Detroit" contributor Stephen Henderson spoke with Dr. Melissa Creary, a social scientist and assistant professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health, about the breakthrough treatment.

- Means that there's a disruption of the gene.

(ambient music) - So I am fascinated by this news and fascinated by the possibilities that it suggests.

Let's start with what this actually is and what effects it can have for people who struggle with sickle cell anemia.

- Sure.

Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder, and it impacts mostly those that are descendants of the African diaspora, Black Americans and Caribbeans.

And so it's a disease that it's pretty debilitating.

And so when we're thinking about the potential for gene therapy and what it can do for the population, it's a really exciting day.

- So explain to me what this is and how it works and why it's such an advance in the way to treat this disease.

- Absolutely.

So in December, the FDA approved the clearance for two gene therapies to be released to market for people to begin to think about taking as part of their therapy and care for sickle cell disease.

And there are two types.

One is called Lovo-cel, one is called Exa-cel.

Both of these involve taking your own cells and kind of altering them.

They involve chemotherapy, they involve long times at the hospital, but that alteration means that either your own stem cells are re-engineered for one of them, or for the other one, it means that there's a disruption of the gene that causes the sickling.

And by disrupting that gene, you're allowing fetal hemoglobin, which basically creates really healthy buoyant red cells to be produced.

In both of these cases, both of these gene therapies, an assumed cure is happening, because brand new cells are going to be generated, brand new healthy red blood cells will be generated.

- Yeah, and this is my understanding at least, is that this is part of medical science that is being used to change the way we treat lots of different diseases.

This idea that essentially altering what's going on with your own stem cells or your own genes is the way to treat, or in some cases cure diseases that have confounded us for a really long time.

- There's a lot of excitement I think, in the scientific world, about this for this very promise.

And I think that yes, we can think about the ways that this gets applied to many diseases.

for CRISPR in particular, the exa-cel that I mentioned earlier, this is the first, they created this technology with sickle cell disease in mind to kind of pave the way for how other diseases will kind of follow suit.

And so there's this large idea about why and how we are going to address a particular population, a population that's been through a lot of medical neglect, and then give them this innovation, I think as a way to kind of counteract that historical neglect that's been happening.

- Yeah, I absolutely know about the frustration with the medical establishment in coming up with ways to treat it.

Just like for other health outcomes and issues for African Americans, this has been, I think, the right word is neglected.

- Absolutely.

I think that there's just been this long history of inequities that we have seen as it has played out in the sickle cell population, which I think can be connected directly to institutional and structural racism that we find in all of our systems, particularly our healthcare system, and the way that we think about the production of knowledge, the way that we think about how science gets developed.

All these things are interconnected.

I am hopeful that this is just the start and a way forward of how we can actually pay attention to this historical neglect.

I am concerned about this kind of idea of a scientific piece of justice being applied to a population that needs a lot more attention when it comes to this historical neglect and this historical kind of experience with inequities.

We can't just say, here's a brand new innovation, and then expect everything else to kind of fall in place.

- Right, right.

And there are some other concerns around the use of this, and again, the distribution and the access to it.

- Absolutely.

One of the main questions we have ask ourselves is, countered with this excitement we have about this therapy is who exactly is going to get access to this therapy?

In Michigan, there is only one site that's going to be offering it, and that's the children's hospital which is in Detroit.

And besides this physical location of accessibility, we also have to think about financial accessibility and this much larger kind of ecosystem of support that's needed.

These therapies are ranging between one and $3 million and we haven't yet figured out exactly who's going to pay for what.

- So I also wanna give you a chance to talk personally about this.

I understand you're someone who lives with sickle cell disease.

First, how do you feel like this might affect you, but also give us a sense of what it's like to live with this disease under the circumstances that we've had before this discovery.

- Yeah, I think it's hard to fully grasp what it's like.

And I will say that I'm a professor at the University of Michigan.

I'm living in a certain amount of privilege.

And I, despite all of that privilege, am exposed to pain almost every day.

And that is the main hallmark, the symptomatic hallmark of sickle cell is pain.

So the idea that a therapy like this can take away pain really impacts your everyday positioning in life.

Everything that you do when you're living with sickle cell is measured on how much pain you might have access to, how much pain you might experience in a given situation.

And the idea of being untethered to that pain offers an amount of freedom that I really can't fully fathom.

- [Host] February is Teen dating Violence Awareness Month, a time to talk about emotional and physical violence among young people in relationships.

Education is key to preventing the abuse, and a new Michigan law requires schools to teach teens about physical and sexual assault awareness.

"One Detroit's" Bill Kubota visited a high school where students are learning about dating violence and how to prevent it.

(ambient music) - [Bill] It's Macomb, Dakota High School ninth graders learning about relationships.

- Today's presentation is called Dating Secrets.

It is a presentation about teen dating violence.

- Research shows us right now that as young as 12, that abusive relationships are starting to develop and occur.

So this early prevention education in schools is vital to hopefully stop that cycle and end the violence before it even really begins.

- [Bill] Turning Point, based in Mount Clemens, advocates for survivors of domestic violence, leading discussions in many Macomb County schools, this session part of Dakota High's 20 week health class.

- Okay, quiz, how many high school students experience physical abuse from a dating partner each year in the United States?

Do we think it's 1,000, 15,000, 150,000, or 1.5 million?

It is 1.5 million high school students every year in this country.

- [Bill] A recent national survey found almost 10% of high schoolers reported suffering dating violence.

- That might even be more like controlling behavior, like abuse, right?

- [Bill] Other research shows that violence leaves lasting health impacts well into adulthood.

- Even though ninth graders, some of them, they're emotionally immature, you're just getting outta middle school, you're just really starting to experience life outside of your family system, that doesn't mean that you don't have the capacity to start to learn about really important life issues.

So I hope that people don't take away, like, ninth grade's too young or they're not ready for this.

They are ready for it, and they see it in TV shows and media.

They hear about it through their friendships and families.

It's an important time to start the education, but it also shouldn't be the end of it.

- Abuse can take many forms, but it is always about that power and control over another person.

And our definition of domestic violence applies to people who are in a romantic relationship.

They are involved in an intimate partnership, right?

So they might be dating or married, something like that.

- [Bill] Turning Point has been hosting these sessions for decades, but in more recent years, the onslaught of social media, a space where abusers exercise much of their power and control.

- Digital, that could be controlling your partner's social media accounts.

You could have a partner who asks to have the password to your accounts, the password to your phone.

It could be that someone wants to look through your Instagram DMs or your text messages to see what's going on in your life.

- It takes a little bit to settle in.

This is a hard topic, it's uncomfortable.

These are things that not a lot of teens really want to originally talk about.

And then we meet 'em where they're at and have engaging conversations.

And part of this program is anonymous questions and we get a lot of anonymous questions about what do I do if I'm in a relationship like this?

How do I get help?

How do I help my friend?

- [Bill] A few seniors we talked to say this class has stayed with them since they took it back in ninth grade.

- At the time it was kind of like, okay, well I need this class to graduate so I'm just going to get it done and over with.

And then when Turning Point came in, it was like, oh wow, this is completely different from what I thought was going on in middle school.

- I've known people that have dated older people and have been in that type of relationship where they have a power dynamic because they're dating somebody that's older than them that will take advantage of them because they're young and naive.

- It really kind of sets their path throughout high school and life, because they will come across relationship with different people, and not just like intimate relationships, but also relationships with friends.

- We know that many teens fear being punished by their parents for dating someone or for not breaking up with someone when their parents instruct them to.

Often teens might feel like their parents are trying to control them.

And if someone is already in a controlling relationship, adding that control from a parent can be really difficult and make a teen feel powerless.

But we also know that unless you tell your parents, they probably won't know.

In one study, while 82% of parents felt like they could identify all of the signs if their child was in a violent relationship, most parents could not correctly identify those signs.

- [Bill] A lesson here, confronting teen violence means tough conversations.

Young love can blind teens to what's really going on.

- Even the littlest things, like your partner is constantly asking you where you are with your friends.

Those are even signs of maybe an abusive relationship or things that might be a little wrong in your relationship.

And they really, it opened my eyes up a lot.

- There are many people still out there who don't really think they're in a toxic relationship or being domestically abused 'cause they think that that's all they have.

- I think that it's important that we have this in ninth grade.

One thing that I wish we could do is have it introduced again at a later stage of high school.

And I know it's hard in public school.

There's so many requirements for students to graduate.

- Can I have your papers please?

- But to have it be a one and done in my opinion is kind of disappointing.

But I'd love to have some kind of a senior seminar where before students are launched into adulthood that we had additional education on suicide prevention, violence prevention, and also drug prevention information to help launch them out into the world.

- And that is kind of where we can draw that line.

- [Host] This is shaping up to be a very entertaining weekend in metro Detroit, filled with music, film, shopping, and even football activities.

Here's Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ with today's "One Detroit Weekend."

- Hi, I'm Cecelia Sharpe with 90.9 WRCJ here to help you plan your days ahead with some great events happening in metro Detroit.

Southfield is celebrating black history all month long, and Friday, the city brings The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers to the Southfield Pavilion.

The event is hosted by Detroit Performs' very own Satori Shakoor, and features four storytellers who will share their insights on black history and culture.

On Saturday, the Livonia Symphony performs "Melodic Melodies" featuring Sibelius Symphony number two in the Clarenceville Schmidt Auditorium at 4:00 PM.

On Sunday you can head to the Detroit Historical Society for their celebration of Black History Month.

From 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, museum-goers can take part in their On the Shoulders of Giants event, honoring Black Detroit entrepreneurs with a talk, live music, and a vendor marketplace featuring many of the entrepreneur honorees.

Another way to honor Black History Month is to head to the Wright, where John E. Dowell's exhibition "Paths to Freedom" is on display.

In the exhibition, Dowell uses night imagery to imagine the agricultural landscape his enslaved ancestors encountered during their pursuit of freedom.

There's also so much more going on in and around Detroit.

So here are other events to check out.

Have a fantastic weekend.

(ambient music) (ambient music) - [Host] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Head to the One Detroit website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

(ambient music) - [Narrator] From Delta Faucets to Bear Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco: serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Annoncer 2] Support for this program is provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

(ambient music) - [Announcer 3] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEfoundation.com to learn more.

- [Announcer 2] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(percussive ambient music) (cheerful piano tones)