Group to host faith summit on mental health

Utah Faith Summit on Mental Health

LOGAN – Next Friday, October 27, a group of individuals and professionals concerned about the mental health of Cache Valley residents are hosting the first-ever PAZ Faith-based Mental Health Summit.

The summit will take place at the Riverwoods Conference Center located at 615 Riverwood Pkwy in Logan on Friday, October 27. Registration begins at 7:45 a.m. and the opening signing invocation will take place at 9 a.m. and the keynote speaker will be Jane Clayson. Johnson. Breakout sessions will begin at 10 a.m. and last approximately one hour.

This is open to all community members and congregational leaders interested in mental health issues, said Esterlee Molyneaux, co-founder of PAZ Wellness, the group responsible for organizing the event for the community. I have been in social work for 28 years. I retired and started to feel like there are gaps in services that we need to address.

She found that emergency room physician Dr. Ryan Stolworthy was seeing a 400 percent increase in the number of children brought in for mental health issues.

Dr. Ryan Stolworthy was the other co-founder of PAZ, she said. PAZ means pause, it also means peace in Latin, Spanish and Portuguese.

The goal of the summit is to alleviate mental health issues by integrating faith, Molyneaux added. We want to help all religious leaders, regardless of their religious belief.

The aim of the summit is to equip participants with the essential skills to provide unwavering support and guidance to others facing challenges and to promote the well-being of their loved ones and themselves.

Some religious leaders don’t know what to say or do when faced with mental health issues, she said. We have recognized professionals and experts, with inspiring speakers who will tell their stories.

Jane Clayson Johnson is a journalist who worked as an anchor at KSL in Salt Lake City and later worked at CBS as a morning host.

She retired after marrying Mark W. Johnson. Clayson suffered from depression and became an advocate for mental health issues. She will be one of the keynote speakers.

Eric Hipple, former Utah State University and Detroit Lions quarterback, will speak about his struggle with depression.

He was sitting in the passenger seat while his wife drove and gave her a note saying he couldn’t do it anymore and jumped out of the car, Molyneaux said. He later had a son who committed suicide.

Hilary Weeks, a popular Christian singer-songwriter, will also perform.

We have work to do to talk to teens about social media, she said. We have a session on the importance of forgiveness.

There will be information on caring for loved ones in difficulty.

Cache Valley has the highest rate of men committing suicide between the ages of 35 and 55, she said. Society tells us to be strong and not talk about it. We need to talk about depression if we can be vulnerable and talk about things that could save lives.

They have experts who will talk about sexual betrayal and addiction, recounting their personal experiences.

“We have experts who will talk about self-harm, suicide and mental health issues among adolescents,” Molyneaux said. “There will be many practical tools available to people.

The summit will cover a range of essential topics, including but not limited to:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fear and shame
• Forgiveness
• Sexual Addiction and Betrayal
• Screen time and social media
• Suicide
• Self-harm
• Communication
• Young people and addictive behaviors
• Support those who question the faith
• Depression and adolescents

The sessions will focus on providing both education and tools to heal and be mentally healthy.

Registration closes October 23, 2023. To register or get more information, call (435) 994-7500 or email [email protected].