USU Moab Celebrates World Mental Health Day with Community Wellness Event

MOAB, Utah — Utah State University Moab partnered with several community organizations to celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10.

Gathering at Rotary Park on a rainy Friday, members of the Social Work department at USU Moab led an event focused on wellness and self-care. As part of the celebration, USU Moab’s Social Work program provided personalized self-care planning tools, encouraging participants to take proactive steps toward maintaining mental well-being.

According to Jen Evers, clinical associate professor of social work and one of the events organizers, this event represented an important part of our mission to promote mental wellness and connect the university to the broader Moab community.

“This event grew from a simple but important realization: many programs don’t reach their full potential because people don’t know they exist,” Evers said. “With mental health challenges on the rise, we wanted to bridge that gap by creating a space where people could learn about available resources in a welcoming, stigma-free environment. World Mental Health Day provided the perfect opportunity to bring that vision to life.”

In addition to the self-care tools, participants were able to find access to a wide range of local resources focused on mental health and wellness. The Moab Valley Multicultural Center distributed mental health kits, the Wellness Collective shared aromatherapy tools and information on upcoming wellness classes, and the Moab Free Health Clinic, Seekhaven, and Four Corners Community Behavioral Health provided valuable materials and on-site representatives to answer questions and connect people to services.

USU also provided healthy snacks and beverages– along with special treats from La Michoacana– to create a welcoming, community-oriented atmosphere.

Evers said that although the event had a modest turnout, it will help lay the foundation for future events. Working together with so many agencies, Evers says that they left with many ideas of how to make the next year’s event even bigger and better.

“We hope residents will join us in the future as we continue building awareness and connection around mental health resources in Moab,” Evers said. “We’re already planning ways to expand it and make it even more accessible to the community next year.”

Located in the outdoor recreation paradise of Moab and boasting one of the greenest buildings on any USU campus, Utah State University Moab offers students the personalized attention and small class sizes of a small-town college with the resources of a large university. With programs such as Nursing, Elementary Education, Recreation Resource Management and Social Work, technical education in Health Professions, Automotive and Business, and degree options ranging from associate to doctorate degrees, USU Moab offers programs that help fuel local economies and empower individuals and their communities. Learn more at moab.usu.edu.