The sixth annual Opioid Wellness Summit was hosted once again at the USU Eastern Jennifer Leavitt Student Center on Oct. 24-26. This summit was presented by Utah State University Extension’s HEART Initiative and the Tribal & Rural Opioid Initiative.
This year, the theme for the summit was “Open Roads to Health and Wellness: Providing rural communities with many pathways to build strong and healthy families.” It reflected the commitment to sharing ideas, practices and strategies to address the opioid and stimulant epidemic.
“Rural communities have strength in our connectedness and we are ready to take on new challenges to form new pathways,” USU Extension shared. “Connected, we will face the opioid overdose crisis and the emergency stimulant crisis.”
Beginning the summit on Tuesday afternoon, registration was open from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., while a service project and ice cream social began at 3:30 p.m. Attendees assembled wound care kits in the student center’s multipurpose room.
Beginning bright and early the next day, breakfast was provided during registration. The day was full with a morning session, lunch presentation, afternoon session, and a health and wellness resource expo. The day ended with food trucks and an evening activity at the Carbon County Fairgrounds.
Then, on Thursday, the summit continued with more sessions, the expo and another lunch presentation. The event concluded on Thursday afternoon with afternoon sessions, a raffle and closing remarks.
