Mental Health and COVID-19
The Challenges Workers are Facing and Ways Employers Can Help
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1:30 – 3 p.m. ET
Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a tremendous mental strain on employees around the world, with possible effects ranging from fatigue to loss of focus, anxiety, depression and substance abuse. Employers have a unique ability and responsibility to respond—and this session is designed to help. Join experts as they share the experiences of employees working in various industries, explain the contributing factors and brain-based perspective and introduce changes employers can make to best support employees’ mental health and well-being.
What You’ll Learn
- The toll the pandemic is taking on employees who work in different industries, ranging from manufacturing to childcare and civil service
- How factors such as stress, uncertainty, fear and guilt impact the body, psychologically and physically
- Immediate changes employers can make and long-term investments in benefits and work-culture initiatives that are critical
- How to take advantage of free resources available to all employers
Speakers
State Director of Faith-Based Initiatives, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
Monty Burks serves as the director of faith-based initiatives for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. In this role, he engages and connects Tennessee’s faith communities to the behavioral health care system, with the goal of expanding addiction and mental health support services across the state. He also oversees the Tennessee Lifeline Peer Project, a state program aimed at reducing the stigma associated with people who suffer from addiction and the Tennessee faith-based community coordinators, who seek to help congregations build their capacity to combat addiction and mental health issues in their respective community. Burks has 20 years of experience working with the criminal justice system in various roles, including adjunct criminal justice professor at Motlow State Community College, criminal justice research analyst at Middle Tennessee State University and criminal justice program coordinator at Tennessee State University, where he still serves as an adjunct professor of criminal justice.
Johnson County Extension Director, Family and Consumer Science and 4-H Agent, UT Extension
Sarah Ransom works for UT Extension as a family and consumer science and 4-H agent. In January 2020, she was promoted to county director and oversees the local county office. Her current responsibilities include educating the community on healthy living, nutrition, parenting, interpersonal relationships, finances and working with youth. Ransom has experience working with daycares and schools and in professional settings. She attended Liberty University, in Virginia, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in family and child development in 2012, and went on to earn a master’s degree in early childhood development from East Tennessee State University in 2016.
Assistant Professor, Human Development Specialist and Certified Family Life Educator, UT Extension
Heather Sedges is an associate professor of human development in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department with UT Extension. She has the pleasure of living her passion as she transforms research about people and families into usable information. Her expertise helps individuals and communities better understand the how and why of interactions from a brain-based perspective. Since 2014, her grant writing skills have brought in $12.3 million in funding to the University to address issues ranging from healthy communities to farmer stress. She was honored in 2018 with the national Early Career Achievement award from the Institute of Youth, Family and Community—a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
