Cutting Edge: Local Businesses and Organizations Making a Difference in Health Care

These four metro Detroit businesses and organizations are doing positive work in area health care.
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Photograph courtesy of StretchLab

Pediatric care facility opens in St. Clair Shores

According to estimates from the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, about one in 44 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder. For children with ASD, services like Lumen Pediatric Therapy can make a world of difference.

Based in St. Clair Shores, Lumen Pediatric Therapy has opened a new state-of-the-art facility at 26210 Harper Ave. As an organization, Lumen Pediatric Therapy provides evidence-based services to help patients maximize their potential.

Using therapeutic methodologies based in applied behavior analysis, speech-language pathology, and occupational therapy, the compassionate team at Lumen Pediatric Therapy provides an individualized plan of care to each patient.

Suicide prevention nonprofit awarded millions for residential center

After losing their son, Garrett, to suicide at age 23, Julie and Scott Halpert recognized the lack of treatment options for young adults struggling with their mental health.

In honor of their son, the Halperts founded “Garrett’s Space,” a suicide prevention nonprofit that provides professionally facilitated weekly support groups. In support of Garrett’s Space, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, secured a $4 million award for the nonprofit as part of the fiscal year 2023 omnibus appropriations package.

Garrett’s Space was selected as one of the 15 community projects in Michigan’s 12th Congressional District to receive the funding. The funding will be utilized to build a new residential center that will provide more space for short-term stays as well as additional healing programming and activities.

“We believe a space like this, immersed in nature, could have helped Garrett,” Scott Halpert says. “We want to provide this important option to the many young adults who need it.”

LGBT Detroit renews MDHHS partnership

LGBT Detroit has one mission: to activate, amplify, and sustain LGBT+ culture, education, advocacy, and human rights.

“HIV is the No. 1 issue that we’ve organized around at LGBT Detroit,” says Jerron Totten, social justice engineer at LGBT Detroit. “Much like COVID, there’s a huge disparity in infection rates between Black LGBT+ men and our white counterparts. And so, again, like COVID, although HIV-related deaths are on the decline, HIV infections are still on the rise.”

In recognition of its efforts to combat HIV, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has renewed its partnership with the Detroit nonprofit. LGBT Detroit will receive $300,000 from MDHHS to be used toward supporting HIV awareness programs and activities, a prevention and intervention video podcast series, a winter Pride event, and an audio podcast series, as well as additional programs to be launched later this year.

Assisted stretching studio debuts in metro Detroit

Believe it or not, one of the hottest new fitness trends dominating the health and wellness community is stretching. StretchLab, a premier assisted stretching boutique, is capitalizing on the stretching trend and opened a new location in West Bloomfield in February.

StretchLab, located at 6893 Orchard Lake Road, offers a variety of personalized stretching services, including a 50-minute head-to-toe deep stretch that targets all major muscle groups and a 25-minute stretch that directly addresses the client’s current stretching needs.

StretchLab West Bloomfield owner Shawn Byrnes says he is looking forward to introducing the metro Detroit community to the benefits of assisted stretching.

“Assisted stretching is a modality that speaks to and can be utilized by all kinds of people, and I’m glad to help it reach the community where I live, work, and play,” Byrnes says.


This story is part of the 2023 Health Guide. Read more in our Digital Edition.