WKU, CAYA launch institute focused on community health
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) — On Friday Western Kentucky University and CAYA Collaborative Care celebrated the launch of a new institute aimed at connecting research with the health needs of people across Kentucky.
The CAYA Advancing Research and Community Health Institute, or ARCH Institute, is located within WKU’s College of Health and Human Services.
The purpose is to bring researchers, students and community health providers together under one roof.
Connecting research with real needs
CAYA Collaborative Care President and CEO Joe Dan Beavers said the partnership with WKU grew from earlier work focused on child welfare.
Now, the two organizations are expanding that relationship.
“Good research should lead to improved health outcomes, stronger policy, and healthier communities,” Beavers said. “And too often there’s a gap between the research that is published and the care that people actually receive in those communities. This institute is built to bridge those gaps.”
CAYA, formerly known as LifeSkills, serves people across 18 counties and 34 locations.
The institute will include work in child welfare, rural health, aging, workplace and environmental health and clinical services.
Leaders also want research questions to come from the communities themselves and to create more opportunities for faculty, students and healthcare providers to work together.
What it could mean for families
Shelley Lowe, a former CAYA board member, spoke about the support her family has received from WKU and CAYA while caring for her son, Davis.
“Families like mine don’t need people to do everything for us,” Lowe said. “We do need people who understand the system, respect our choices, and stay with us for the long haul.”
She said the institute could help prepare more people to provide that kind of support.
“The students sitting in a classroom here today may be the person answering a scared parent’s phone call a few years from now, or helping an individual move from crisis mode to building a beautiful life despite difficult circumstances,” Lowe said.
Beavers said CAYA also hopes students who train and gain experience here will stay and work in Kentucky.
For families across the region, that could eventually mean stronger services, better access to care and more trained professionals working close to home.
