The HOPE Squad of Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties will be hosting a Carbon & Emery Conversations for Coal Miners Mental Health on Tuesday, Apr. 30. This event will be held at the Jennier Leavitt Student Center on the campus of USU Eastern at 6:00 pm. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Suicide Prevention Specialist, Amanda McIntosh to get all the details.

There will be a guest speaker that will present her dissertation on Wellbeing, Mental Health, and Natural Resource Dependency in Rural Utah. “Dr. Kristen Koci she was a Doctoral Student last year for USU Eastern and contacted multiple key leaders and local organizations within Carbon and Emery County last fall to compile some data about mental health and our miners. She has offered to come and do this presentation of the data that she has compiled, while we feed our community a free dinner,” said McIntosh. The presentation will discuss mental health stigma and solutions for addressing mental health for this at-risk population and for the broader community. Dr. Koci thought that this topic would be very important and helpful to our area as a lot of folks make their living as a coal miner in both Carbon and Emery Counties.

Not only will there be a free presentation but there will also be a free dinner served by USU Eastern Dining Services, plus after the dinner there will be a quick Narcan training for participants to learn how to administer in case of an emergency. There will be local resource booths available throughout the evening as well. “So we need people to register so we have a good solid count for food. You can go to the HOPE Squad’s Facebook page to the Health Department’s Facebook page. But if they have questions, they’re more than welcomed to call me at the Health Department,” stated McIntosh. This event will be so helpful to all coal miners, their spouses, friends and loved ones.

To keep up to date on all the fun events and community gatherings hosted by HOPE Squad of Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties visit their Facebook page.