Wasatch County Council Hears Reports Regarding Mental Health Services And The School District – KPCW

At their Tuesday evening special meeting Wasatch County Council learned about apositivestatisticfor the cases of COVID-19 in the county.The council also heard about mental health practices and how the school district is preparing for the end of the high school quarantine on Thursday morning.

Wasatch County Health Department Director Randall Probst shared that there has been 16 people in Wasatch County,15 residents and one visitor, who have been confirmed to have COVID-19.Probst did share some good news.

"As of today, we have four that are now considered recovered, Probst explained. So, they're not active cases today, but we were only reporting total cases. We have had four now that have met the criteria to comeoff ofbeingactive, which would be considered recovered case. So that's a good step.

The council also learned with the increasing availability of testing, the threshold for who can receive a test has been lowered, which shouldalsohelp slow the spread of the virus.

Probstshared ways for people to take care of their mental health during the crisis, including communication with others, physical movement and meditation especially focused on gratitude.Program manager of the Wasatch County Family Clinic, of Wasatch Mental Health,ChadShubinrecommendedusing resources such as seeing a therapistpossibly through a telephoneappointment,usingtheSafeUTapp, or a crisis lineif neededas anxietyand depressioncan run high duringapandemic.

There's uncertainty as to how long the pandemic going to take place, Shubin continued. Uncertainty is very normal. Wanting to know what my new normal is going to be, is a question we all wantanswered.Unfortunately, right now we're going to have to be a little comfortable with ambiguity and understanding thatsense of anxiety is going to persist until this is resolved.Thats justsomething that well have to accept.That being said, alot of what Randall said is useful. Where we can, createnew structure.Where we can, find associations and find opportunities to express gratitudethat's going to have a lot of utility.Exercise,very important.Sunlight and vitamin D, very important.

Wasatch County School District Superintendent PaulSweat shared theirmental health resources forstudentsin the meeting as well,a link to those resources can be found here.

On Monday Governor Gary Herbert ordered the closure of schools through at least May 1. Sweat said theyrehoping for thebest butplanning for the worst.

We hopethat we can be back in school Monday, May 4th, Sweat said. But I'm asking my people in the district to plan for the rest of the school year. As I look at the numbers and the predictions that are being made by some of the professionals here in the state, it's looking like we're going to be in the phase that were in for eight to 10 weeks. Which puts us to the middle of May, and I don't think there's a real argument to come back to school in the middle of May. We're looking at this as this is normal for the rest of the school year, so let's settle into those routines.

Sweat stated thatwhileitstrue people have occasionally seen a high school student out in the community, when you take into consideration how many of the nearly 2,400 students youre not seeingSweat says thatis a testament to the collective effort that students have taken to keep the self-isolation order, which ends on Thursday morning.Inpreparationfor that end,the district plans to release a video on Wednesday afternoon.

"We will remind our students and our parents that just because thequarantine is over doesn't mean that it's back to life asnormal, Sweat explained.We still have these guidelines set forth by our County and our state as it relates toself-isolation, anddoing things, being smart about this.Not congregating in groups larger than ten and all those things that we've been conditioned to do.

Also highlighted at the meeting was theCoronavirus.Wasatch.Utah.Govwebpage which has a link to businesses still open during the pandemic, as well as a link to the states page which contains resources for business owners released on Tuesday, the entire meeting can be found here.

Continue reading here:
Wasatch County Council Hears Reports Regarding Mental Health Services And The School District - KPCW