HEALTH & FITNESS

protile

1978; a diploma from the FBI National
Academy, March 1993; and a master's

of science in administration, Central
Michigan University, 1993.
His second career includes stints

as an oncology social worker at
Providence Cancer Institute, as a hos-
pice social worker at Odyssey Health

Care Systems and, a year or so after
his conversion to Judaism, as program
director of bereavement services at
Jewish Family Service (JFS) in West
Bloomfield.

Bereavement Program

"He was a pioneer," says Ellen
Yashinsky Chute, now chief community
outreach officer for JFS. 'He was the
first person in a program that was cen-
tered on bereavement issues. Michael

was instrumental in reaching out to the
community," moving beyond his clinical

caseload.
Police investigation helped prepare
him to reach out to the dying and to
those who lose loved ones, Walch

says, because "it's all about talking to
people, being comfortable going into
someone's home."
But there's also a difference. "In
police work, you come in and stabilize

things and you're done. In hospice,
you're there and it's not always com-
fortable," he says. "When there's an
undercurrent of dysfunction in the fam-

Michael Walch amid Judaica in his Waterford home

Path Finder

ily, it really comes out in crisis. Grief
loss is the needle that pierces the bal-

Former police officer turns to hospice work, Judaism.

Judith Doner Berne

Special to the Jewish News

vices and provides education for the
Providence staff on Jewish customs

and ritual.
For JHCN's palliative care program,

I

t's no simple change of beat from

police work to social work and
from devout Catholic to practicing

Jew.
Rather, it's a path that Michael Walch

found himself on following retirement
from the Southfield Police Department

beat cop, undercover officer and homi-

cide detective before his promotions to
sergeant, lieutenant and deputy chief of

loon."
Growing up and working in
Southfield, a city with a significant

Jewish population and Jewish institu-
tions, "there was obviously influence
through exposure to the Jewish com-

munity," Walch says. His dad even
taught a catechism class on the subject
of "Knowing Your Jewish Neighbor."

But in 1994 when he married Joyce
Keller, then the longtime executive
director of Farmington Hills-baed JARC,

Walch coordinates in-patient and out-
patient chaplaincy and social work ser-

police.
"Mike applied a humanistic approach
to police work," says Southfield Police

vices for people who are declining, but
may not qualify for hospice care.
His attraction to hospice social work

Chief Joseph E. Thomas. "Whoever
raised him made him a good person.
He didn't command people — he

was the first, and likely, the easier tran-

earned the respect of people. He made

Winning A Friend

Watch maintained the Catholicism he
had been raised with as one of six chil-

dren in a devout, close-knit family.

in November 2000, "25 years to the

sition. As for his conversion to Judaism,
he didn't see it coming: It was never

things happen."
Although Walch enjoyed police

The two met after each graduated from
Dale Carnegie Training and got to know

day" that he joined up.
Walch, 55, is director of the Shalom
Providence and Palliative Care pro-

on the radar."
Walch finds "strong parallels between
police and social work." Both involve

administration, "the higher I went with
the organization, my circle [of contacts]
got smaller and smaller. I loved being

each other when they went back to
work as Dale Carnegie assistants.
"We were married 10 years before I

grams for Jewish Hospice and
Chaplaincy Network (JHCN), West
Bloomfield.

"being there for people at a time when
they need it — reassuring people, hav-
ing a calming influence."

a police officer and interacting with the
public. Social work would allow me the
opportunity to do that."

converted," says Watch, a graduate of
Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield
Township. "Joyce didn't even know I

As the liaison between Providence
Hospital, Southfield, and its Jewish
patients, he fills requests for Jewish

Cop Career

was considering it. I had to scrape her
off the wall."

His rise through the Southfield police

So he added a master's in social
work from Wayne State University in
Detroit in 2002 to his earlier degrees: a

religious and culturally based ser-

ranks included working the streets as a

bachelor's in criminal justice from WSU,

PATH FINDER on page 36

Aucust 27 2009

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