Jerrica Mickens’ days are always jam-packed, as she’s often caught between work and personal responsibilities. As a community organizer with 482Forward, a Detroit-based community advocacy organization, she spends plenty of time assisting families on Detroit’s west side.
One of the biggest challenges she’s faced in the past few years is addressing the root causes of trauma in Brightmoor, one of the city’s most economically challenged areas, with a high concentration of housing instability, poverty and transportation challenges.
But on a bright and hot Sunday last week, the longtime organizer opted to spend her evening receiving care and support from a band of local healers.
“I view myself as a caregiver,” said Mickens. “I’m constantly pouring into my community and family.”
“Care for Caregivers” was the first event of its kind for Healing by Choice!, a group of Detroit-based women and gender non-conforming people of color.
For over a decade, the organization of health and healing practitioners has provided a variety of services to local movement activists, community organizations and social justice groups.
As folks trickled into the LOVE Building, they were invited to experience a reiki therapy session, receive a cranial-sacral massage or create a “wellness wheel,” a visual tool that helps people identify what practices or resources they need to improve their well-being.
For Mickens, caregiving began when she was a child looking after her younger brother and other children in the neighborhood.
“When people started having babies, I would take care of them,” she said. “I’ve always been a nurturer.” Mickens continues to look after the children of close friends and relatives — part of what she traces to a longstanding tradition of community child-rearing.
“I’m trying to bring back the old way that I grew up with. My mother was privy to that … taking me to neighbors when she was busy.”
Mickens is among a growing number of unpaid caregivers, a role that can exert a physical or emotional toll (or both). Data show that most of these individuals are women over 50 looking after aging parents, but some also tend to friends, neighbors and even former spouses. A survey of 500 caregivers in Metro Detroit found that overwhelmingly, those who have the least to give bear the brunt of the responsibility.
The organizers said the event was “designed to cater to individuals around the city who care for others.”
“It’s not solely about individual caregiving for children or elders,” said Marcia Lee, co-director for Healing by Choice! “We’re also considering those who tend to the earth or perform activism or organizing work. People who are really giving care with intention.”
The Care for Caregivers event spawned from the organization’s ongoing offering of Healing Justice Practice Spaces, in-person or virtual events where groups can engage in alternative healing practices to address individual and communal trauma.
Studies suggest many family caregivers have anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideations. Professional aides are hard to find, in part because of the shortage of direct eldercare workers. There are a growing number of programs designed to help unpaid family caregivers take a break to reduce their stress but they’re often underutilized, according to a 2020 report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.
“I hope that people leave a little bit lighter, that they’re worthy of care, and that they continue to find ways to access it,” said Lee.
Midway through the event, attendees gathered around a table to discuss wellness and jot down self-care practices they can incorporate into their daily lives.
As folks detailed nagging shoulder pain or insomnia from the stress of caring for loved ones, a playlist of R&B music from artists such as Solange, Erykah Badu and Cleo Sol poured into the room from nearby speakers.
“Where is your sanctuary?” Kaela Wabanimkee-Harrris, a member of Healing by Choice!, asked the people at the table. “If your home is not your sanctuary…where can it be?”
As a mother of two daughters, a full-spectrum doula and a trainer with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Tribal TTA Center, Wabanimkee-Harris has been a longtime advocate for Native wellness initiatives in tribal communities. She has carried over practices and perspectives she grew up with in her work with Healing by Choice!.
Utilizing the wellness wheel exercise, she enjoys supporting people in finding coping skills and self-care tools to get them through their lives.
“We all need some type of outlet,” she said. “All the people doing the thing as caregivers, and all the other things … they still have to go home and take care of their families.
“Who’s caring for the caregivers?”
Wabanimkee-Harris’ personal wellness practice consists of a morning ritual of daily prayer, smudging, and weekly boxing sessions.
Mickens attended the event, based on a colleague’s recommendation.
“It’s a space for me to heal,” she said.
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