Losing a loved one is never easy. Losing a child, devastating. Grief ebbs and flows over time, but for some, it can become overwhelming. Kenny Abel, 54, knew he needed help but was hurting too much to know where to begin. Crippled by grief, anxiety and depression after the loss of his daughter Juliana, he struggled to function. His therapist, Delaney Dupuis, L.M.S.W., recommended he participate in the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) at MyMichigan Medical Center Midland. The people Abel met there and skills he learned have changed his life.
“It’s hard to pinpoint a single moment I knew I was on the right path with this program, but one thing that stood out was the acceptance and non-judgmental nature of staff,” Abel shared. “Because they balance group and individual work, I was able to hear other peoples’ experiences, and that was eye-opening to me. I realized I was not the only one struggling. Staff made us feel seen and heard; no matter what your story was, they encouraged you to keep going and helped you build the skills needed to do that.”
The PHP program is designed to help people cope with life, offering intensive help for people during the day who need a level of care greater than weekly sessions, but don’t require the 24-hour supervised care of an inpatient program. Participants discuss their thoughts, feelings and behaviors in the group setting, and are educated on various psychological topics, such as grief and loss, stress management, assertiveness and boundaries, among others. Because Abel was having difficulty working through his grief with standard outpatient therapy, PHP was a great alternative.
“I was really stuck, and those around me knew it,” he said. “I was behind at work, didn’t want to leave the house – even with my wife – and suffered physically with anxiety attacks. When Juliana was ill, I was in denial. When she passed, I was not equipped to handle it. PHP gave me tangible, practical techniques to work through my grief and move forward.”
Abel shared one of the tools used in therapy that clicked for him was an activity creating mindfulness jars. Patients fill a jar with water, glue, glitter, and orbs. Shake it up, and the glitter swirls and swirls. When the jar is set down and just observed without judgment, the glitter eventually slows and sinks to the bottom. “My thoughts and anxieties were like that glitter,” he said. “Now, I’m able to recognize the thoughts for what they are but understand that swirling is temporary. I breathe through it until I become calm and settled again.”
Abel said that he would recommend the PHP program to anyone. “We all cope with worry, stress and grief to one degree or another,” he said. “And we need to know how to manage the smaller-scale problems each day so that when something big comes along, we can confront it.”
Abel keeps a ‘tip sheet’ he received from the program titled “How to Feel Your Feelings; a thing that sounds obvious but totally isn’t,” taped to a wall he sees every day. It’s a reminder to continue practicing what he learned. The program did not erase his grief, but it gave him the tools to carry it and to keep moving forward.
The Partial Hospitalization Program is available at MyMichigan Medical Centers in Alma and Midland. The program accepts voluntary self-referrals, as well as community and physician referrals. Sessions are held Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with both locations expanding to serve more patients in need. Those interested in learning more may visit www.mymichigan.org/mentalhealth.
MyMichigan Health, a non-profit health system headquartered in Midland, Michigan, is a leader in providing award-winning, high-quality care across the 26-counties it serves. With two tertiary hospitals in Midland and Saginaw, MyMichigan also has Medical Centers in Alma, Alpena, Clare, Gladwin, Mt. Pleasant, Sault Ste. Marie, Standish, Tawas, Towne Centre and West Branch. MyMichigan Health provides a full continuum of care across a wide array of settings, including urgent care centers, home health, virtual care, as well as medical offices. Their expertise spans 85 specialties and subspecialties, including behavioral health, cardiology, primary care, hematology/oncology, neurosciences, orthopedics, women and children services, and vascular surgery among others. Dedicated to advancing the future of medicine, MyMichigan Health collaborates with leading institutions to offer medical education programs. These initiatives are designed to train the next generation of medical professionals, including medical students, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nursing students and other clinical experts. For four consecutive years, from 2022 to 2025, Forbes has acknowledged MyMichigan Health as one of “America’s Best Employers by State” and, in 2025, was also named to Forbes’ list of ‘America’s Best Employers for Healthcare Professionals.’ With more than 13,200 employees and operational support staff, MyMichigan Health is a significant employer within its service areas and is committed to creating healthy communities and responding to the changing needs of the more than one million residents it supports. In fiscal year 2025, MyMichigan Health provided $243 million in community benefits, as well as supported its patients and families with new equipment, services and programs with funds raised by the MyMichigan Health Foundation and Field Neurosciences Institute.