By Zach Kyle, Idaho Statesman

However, the show does give parents a window to broach a difficult subject with their teens, she said. That could be a silver lining in Idaho, which had the ninth-highest suicide rate in the nation in 2015, 46 percent higher than the national average. “Parents need to step up to the plate,” Decker said. “Sometimes, kids are ready to talk, and parents are the ones who are hesitant. Prepare yourself for an open and honest conversation, and be ready to hear whatever your child shares with you."

Family gatherings, while wonderful, can be a difficult time to get through if you’ve recently entered addiction recovery; they come with so many responsibilities, worries, and stresses, and there’s often so little time to do anything else that many of us neglect our own health and well-being. This can have detrimental impacts on your sobriety, so it’s important to reach out for help when you need it.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways to beat stress and maintain your sober status no matter what has brought your family together; with a little planning and preparation, you can ensure your time with your loved ones is fun-filled and substance-free. Here are a few of the best tips for doing just that.

Film examines long-term effects of childhood trauma and science behind cutting-edge therapies designed to protect children from harm caused by toxic stress

By David Wells, Fox13 News

Author Fatima Doman and CONNECT Summit County's Shauna Wiest visited the FOX 13 Studio Tuesday morning to talk about unlocking inner strengths and empowering students in Park City School District's "Resilience Week."

Watch Interview Here

Author Fatima Doman and Park City School District  Intervention Counselor Samantha Walsh talk about Resilience Week coming to Park City next week.

Listen Here

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) how do you teach your children resilience and grit? The park city school district plans to focus on that next week in all of their classrooms.

Intervention counselor Samantha Walsh and Fatima Doman the founder, CEO and author of authentic strengths joined Emily Clark on Good Morning Utah to talk about what is takes to teach your children these values.

In collaboration with the Park City School District, The Speedy Foundation, and many other community partners, CONNECT is proud to present Resilience Week in Park City. The week will include the screening of three powerful, award winning films to create crucial dialogue within our community. All of the events are free and the entire family is welcome.

Film screenings aim to deliver a powerful message to community

By Bubba Brown, Park Record

When Connect Summit County and the Speedy Foundation, organizations dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues, were thinking of organizing a community film screening, they were excited to discover the Park City School District was planning to show two similar films the same week.

Instead of hosting separate events, the three groups formed a partnership, along with the Park City Library, to form Resilience Week, an upcoming series of free film screenings aimed at uniting the community and showing adolescents the strength they have within themselves to take on whatever life throws at them.

The organizers of Resilience Week are hoping it delivers a valuable message to the community's youth and their parents about what it means to be resilient.

"Resilience is built through experiencing and adapting to adverse events over time," she said. "It doesn't mean that you don't feel stress or the emotional impact of events, but you're able to bounce back after getting knocked down without becoming depressed, anxious or even worse — suicidal."

You’re constantly bombarded with media telling you how you can get fit, eat better, and improve your physical health — but what about your mental health? Mental health is just as ( if not more) important than physical health, but it tends to fall by the wayside when dreaming up self-improvement to-do lists. Make mental health a priority in 2017 by incorporating these 10 habits into your plans for the new year.

By: Amy Donaldson, Deseret News

Cook said Speedy not only came to her house to give her daily updates on all of his experiences as a competitor, but he gained worldwide attention when he wrote “Hi, Emily” on his gloves and flashed them at the camera.

“He came to my house and told me all the tiny details,” she said, adding that she wears his belt “on the hill every day” as a tribute to him, just as he wrote on his gloves as a tribute to her. “We celebrated the Olympics in a different way.”

How to curb Utah’s teen-suicide rate? Hatch-convened roundtable says kids needs access to mental-health services

By Alex Stuckey | The Salt Lake Tribune

Republican state Sen. Daniel Thatcher was 11 years old when he lost his first classmate to suicide. He was 16 when he lost his close friend.

That's why, he says, it's so important to drop the stigma and talk about suicide.

"If you talk to someone, they live," Thatcher, from West Valley City, said. "If you connect them to support, they live."

Hatch convenes suicide-prevention conference

By Lois M. Collins & Lauren Fields | Deseret News

“We’ve made more progress in the last five years than in the 20 years before,” Dr. Doug Gray, a psychiatrist, professor and suicidologist at the University of Utah, told the audience at the roundtable, held at East High in Salt Lake City.

MASSACHUSETTS: Flying Away from Stigma: Logan Exhibit Displays Stories of Mental Illness

The Boston Globe
A new exhibit at Boston's Logan Airport aims to reduce the negative bias associated with mental illness by sharing the images and stories of those who have been intimately affected by it. A collaboration between the psychiatric institution McLean Hospital and several mental health organizations, "Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life" displays photographs and interviews with people who have experienced a variety of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide. Participants, who represent a range of sociodemographic backgrounds, seek to convey the challenges of living with mental illness, but also the opportunities for healing and resilience. Sean Shinnock, who shares his story of living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, said, "I hope that somebody who may be hurting gets a little solace, that they know they're not alone." 

With Christmas just around the corner, holidays and catch ups can be a time to relax and enjoy being with friends and family, but it can also be a time when feelings of loneliness, personal struggles, conflict and loss surface and make us feel vulnerable. Leading into the festive season, we're asking everyone to take one action every day to help create a more connected world.

Watch this video to hear how R U OK? Ambassador and media personality Ita Buttrose is getting involved by sharing her Christmas dinner with someone who doesn't have anywhere to go.

The Speedy Foundation has joined forces with the Great Hearts Community, which helps people live the giving life they envision.

Bipolar disorder affects nearly six million adults in the U.S., and many studies have been done in an effort to try and pinpoint where it begins and why. It’s not so easy to understand, however, and it is even harder to study in young people because the symptoms sometimes mimic natural emotional changes that come with growing up.

How important is social connectivity to health?

Social connectivity – spending time with friends and family, taking part in group activities or having a sense of community – may be among the most important predictors of health.

Study upon study shows the myriad ways human connection plays a valuable role in positively supporting a person’s physical and mental health. 

Having strong social ties has been shown to:

• Dramatically lower rates of disease and premature death. Those who lacked supportive relationships had a fourfold increased risk of dying six months after open heart surgery.
• Improve our long-term happiness. People’s happiness correlates to the happiness of others with whom they are connected – and people who are surrounded by happy people are more likely to be happy in the future.
• Decrease stress during major life transitions. Higher levels of happiness and optimism were associated with lower levels of stress and greater increases in perceived social support during life transitions.
• Support recovery. One study showed that higher scores on the Recovery Assessment Scale were related to both social support as well as engagement in activities.

And, the quality of our social networks has a lifetime impact on well-being as we age. 

On Tuesday, December 13, 2016, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act remarking that "those of us called upon to lead this country have a duty" to stand by the families and communities struggling with addiction. The significant funding included in the bill will help fight the ongoing opioid crisis, authorizing $1 billion in grants to states over the next two years.

Jennifer McGregor is a pre-med student who knows how difficult it can be to sift through the mountains of health-related information on the web. She created Public Health Library to help people find reputable information on health topics. 

www.publichealthlibrary.org

Frances Moody, The Park Record

The Speedy Foundation works to prevent suicides

Olympic aerial skier Jeret “Speedy” Peterson was a passionate person.

Even though he accomplished much during the 29 years he lived, Peterson sometimes let his strong emotions manifest in negative ways. Stuck in the darkness of depression, the outgoing athlete took his own life in Park City in 2011.

The Speedy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing suicide, was named after and created for Peterson, who participated in three Olympics, won a FIS world title and set a world record score for aerial skiing.

“The Speedy Foundation was created in the wake of a much-needed conversation that one person was trying to have,” said Shannon Decker, the organization’s executive director. “After his death, we realized that the conversation Speedy was trying to have was rooted in stigma and misinformation.”

Based in Boise, Idaho, and in Park City, the nonprofit raises money to support mental health education. It also uses funds to conduct outreach regarding mental health advocacy.

“The Speedy Foundation acts as an advocate and educational center on topics of mental illness, adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress and trauma,” Decker said. “These are topics that impact all communities around the world.

Decker said the main goal of the foundation is to let those in situations similar to Speedy’s know it’s OK to talk about depression and mental illness.

“There needed to be a voice out there saying, ‘it’s OK to talk about the things that are hard to talk about,’” Decker said. “It’s OK to talk about depression, anxiety, substance use, abuse, neglect, daily struggles, disappointment, challenging transitions, etc.”

The Speedy Foundation works with the Utah Suicide Prevention Coalition and the Summit County Suicide Prevention Coalition to continue the conversation Speedy started.

Decker said the funds it receives from Live PC Give PC will go to Mental Health First Aid and QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training programs in the Park City area.

“Once we honestly confront the problem, we can begin to learn and practice resilience strategies and share hope in the lives of those around us.”

More facts on the foundation can be found at http://www.thespeedyfoundation.org. Live PC Give PC donations to the organization can be made at livepcgivepc.razoo.com.

By Travis Barton, My City Journals

The Speedy Foundation teamed up with Optum on Sept. 24 to offer a free Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) course at the Salt Lake County offices in West Valley City. MHFA is an eight-hour course training participants how to identify the common signs of mental illness including depression, anxiety disorders and substance use...“Mental health is not restricted to a particular age group,” Stewart said about traumatic experiences affecting all ages. 

Youth mental health classes are also offered for people who regularly interact with adolescents who may be experiencing mental health or addiction challenges. 

These classes have become increasingly important in light of a July report from the Utah Department of Health (UDH) stating that suicide is the leading cause of death in Utah for 10- to 17-year-olds. 

“We’re in a major youth suicide crisis right now…we need to really hit home in our schools and anywhere we can,” Flood said, adding that the class is great for parents, counselors and educators. 

Often times mental health issues can be misjudged as anxiety, stress or being overdramatic, especially in teens Emery said. 

“It took me two years to realize that it wasn’t typical teenage rebellion,” Emery said of the experience with her daughter. 

Flood said the class shows participants the signs between typical and atypical teenage behavior. 

“You can see where a typical teenager will always go on their roller coaster ride to really seeing the signs of isolating and if they’re getting involved with alcohol and drugs,” Flood said. 

Severity and time are two of the most important things to look for according to Emery. 

“That lets you know it’s not a situational issue,” Emery said. 

By Associated Press, Idaho Business Review

Tyler Neill has been appointed board president for the Speedy Foundation.

Neill, an attorney in Boise, co-founded The Speedy Foundation.  He was close friend of Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, the three-time Olympian for whom the foundation was named.

Neill graduated from College of Idaho in 2004 with degrees in politics & economics and history, and received his law degree from the University of Idaho College of Law in 2007. He received an MS in education/sport psychology from University of Idaho in 2008.  Prior to working as an attorney, Tyler was the head women’s tennis coach and associate director of compliance for the University of Idaho. He served as treasurer of The Speedy Foundation board from July 2011 to March 2015.

The foundation is a nonprofit organization created in 2011 with the mission of preventing suicide, promoting conversations to end stigma, and supporting mental health education. The Speedy Foundation raises funds for, and collaborates with, other advocacy groups.