When the United Way & Volunteer Services’ Advisory Board gathered around the table and shared ideas approximately thirteen years ago, little did we know that it would be the seed that sprouted forth the Yankton Area Mental Wellness Conference. The “what ifs….” soon became a quest of what would it look like to assist our community’s contingency of mental health professionals to provide a local opportunity for their required certification? What would be needed to eliminate the need for so many people to travel to another city, stay over night, be away from family – not to mention the expense to obtain this certification? After months of dreaming, thinking and sharing ideas with the rule that “no idea is a dumb idea”, the Mental Wellness Conference sprouted forth as a reality.
Starting with a one day, one speaker event to the current conference, it now covers topics pertaining to youth, elderly, mental illness, chemical dependency, stress relief, therapeutic interventions and treatments. All workshops revolve around the organization’s logo, “Caring for Self…Caring for Community”. This year’s conference has 34 workshops plus large group presentations addressing music as therapy, ethics, psychiatric genomics, WRAP, rural healthcare and laughing (to end on a happy topic)! After the conference I hope to be able to speak about some of the topics that have never appeared on my radar screen! That is what makes this conference so interesting and educational.
The workshops reap the knowledge of experts near and far. College professors, drug and alcohol treatment professionals, psychiatrists, an attorney, nurses, doctors, social workers, an occupational therapist plus more will fill our minds during the two day conference. To share a sample of the variety of topics to be addressed are: ethics of personal relationships, holistic approach to mental illness, alcohol and drug involuntary commitment, raising ethically minded children, emotional cycles of deployment, treatment for children with sexual behavior problems, ethics in the workplace, myths of autism, growing old disgracefully, children of alcoholics, connecting the generations, community integration and recovery, gangs and how they affect our community and schools, dying-the final frontier and many more.
At the close of the former conferences we ask the participants to fill out an evaluation form plus pick their brains for topics and individuals that would like to assist in the planning of the Mental Wellness Conference. We always receive great ideas and people eager to get involved with this very beneficial event. It will be exciting to see the ideas and who volunteers for future years.
Look for the bright yellow sign on the north side of Mount Marty College next week. The cars in the lot will have license plates from other states, multiple South Dakota counties in addition to all the Yankton plates that gather together over 250 people for this very special event, “Counting on YOU to Make a Difference.”