Local mental health resource provider CONNECT Summit County has expanded its yearly State of Mind Symposium to include a keynote address.
This year’s speaker is Dr. Donna Volpitta. She founded the educational resource company Pathways to Empower, which focuses on mental health literacy and the science of mental health.
CONNECT will offer programming for not just residents, but mental healthcare providers too. CONNECT is partnering with the University of Utah to offer accreditation hours to medical professionals.
It’s an effort to expand the symposium’s audience and help carers better understand patients’ needs. Here’s CONNECT’s Events Coordinator Betty Morin.
“We really want to open up our audience to, you know, those who are not physicians,” Morin said. “It's not necessarily they're curious, right? But also, to those who this is their profession, and to see what other people are going through. Right? And to really be able to see the experience that's happening, so that they're differently informed of what the needs are by their patients.”
The symposium runs Feb. 13 to 16. The first three days feature panel discussions on family mental health. These will be broadcast on Zoom from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
The subjects are, first, how parents and guardians can have difficult conversations with kids about mental health, moderated by Teri Orr.
Then it’s a panel on substance use, focused on both prevention and how substance use changes with age. Wasatch Crest Director Richard McDonald will moderate.
Finally, CONNECT’s Executive Director Julya Sembrat will moderate a panel on aging, catering to seniors and their caregivers.
Volpitta’s keynote address is scheduled for Feb. 16 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Blair Education Center in Park City Hospital, with a reception afterward. It will also be broadcast on Zoom.
CONNECT’s website has been down for several days. Links to register are available here and on Facebook and Instagram. People can also email Morin at events@connectsummitcounty.org.
“These conversations are solution-based," Morin said. "We want people to, even though we're talking about tough subjects, we want them to walk away feeling like, OK, I have some tools. I have some solutions.”
And, it’s free.
For anyone dealing with mental health problems, CONNECT operates a peer navigation line during business hours at (435) 776-4357 and at resources@connectsummitcounty.org. Anyone in crisis should call 988.