On Thursday September 21, 207 Karen Dolan, MSW, University of Utah, LCSW, CEO, Four Corners Com

munity Behavioral Health, Inc. won the prestigious Leon Povey Lifetime Achievement Award in front of a crowd of 2000 at the annual Fall Substance Abuse Conference in St George, Utah.

The Utah Substance Abuse and Mental Health system honors exemplary contributions that improve understanding and enhance awareness of substance abuse or treatment of substance abuse. The Leon PoVey Lifetime Achievement Award is a highly prestigious award, and is not given out every year. This award is considered a high honor, such as the person who it is named after.

The person nominated for this award must: have made a significant contribution to the field of substance abuse prevention or treatment over the course of his or her career; preferably, the person should have at least 25 years of service in the field; exemplify an ongoing commitment to the field; exemplify the highest ethical standards; clearly be seen as a leader, through position and/or personal e

xample; and made a significant contribution to the public substance abuse system and its clients.

In order to be considered for this award, the nominee:

• Must have made a significant contribution to the field of substance abuse prevention or treatment over the course of his/her career.
• Should have at least 25 years of service in the field.
• Must exemplify an ongoing commitment to the field.
• Must exemplify the highest ethical standards.
• Must clearly be seen as a leader, through position and/or personal example.
• Has made a significant contribution to the public substance abuse system and its clients.

Karen Dolan presented a workshop during the conference on Neuroscience, Management and Building Trust in your Organization. She presented that ‘Trust’ is the secret sauce. Building trust in your organization increases employee engagement, vastly decreases turnover, and boosts company productivity. Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, and these factors fuel stronger performance. Her workshop presented some of the latest studies in Neuroscience and what they have to say about building trust in one’s organization. 120 Participants were trained in specific activities which will dramatically increase trust in their organization.

Also, Four Corner Community Behavioral Health Peer Recovery Coach, Tara Wilder was also a presenter at the conference and spoke on positive recovery vocabulary. The energetic and enthusiastic workshop laid the foundation for new conversations using positive vocabulary and recovery oriented language. This progressive communication style will open the door for new pathways within the clinical and treatment communities. When properly integrated into practice, these will assist in reducing stigma associated with substance use and mental health challenges. Using terms like “dirtyUA” or “addict” can be so stigmatizing. Instead Tara recommend using terms like “UA tested positive for substance” or “Person struggling with a substance use disorder. Our language and voice matter.

The local Naltrexone Drug Court Observation Project was presented by Cameron Williams, MD, Medical Provider, Carbon County Jail; Kara Cunningham, Program Director, Four Corners Community Behavioral health; Jeff Wood, Law Enforcement Officer and Sheriff; Jeremy Humes, Deputy County Attorney. This workshop presented our local naltrexone project where participants can come in daily and receive medication that block opioids from entering their system. The project has good success with keeping people safe and sober from opioids. This project is a coordinated local effort by the courts, law enforcement, the medical community and Four Corners Community Behavioral Health.

Carbon County was represented well at the Fall Substance Abuse Conference and presenters hope that guests are able to take the informative information they shared with them back to their own communities to make a difference.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FOUR CORNERS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH