Becky Wheelock struggled with mental health issues beginning in childhood.
Diagnosed at age 7 with depression, she was treated throughout her teens and 20s with prescribed medications, but nothing seemed to work. Wheelock, who also had anxiety and experienced panic attacks because of trauma in her life, started self-medicating with pills and cocaine and eventually turned to heroin and methamphetamine.
“I never in a million years thought I would go down a path like that,” she said.
After hitting bottom in her mid-30s, Wheelock went into treatment for intravenous drug abuse and accompanying mental health issues and after a few relapses, she has been sober for more than eight years. She now is the operations director at Wasatch Crest, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center with facilities in Park City and Heber.
Wheelock had the guidance of a relative who already was in recovery when she was looking for treatment options. She feels lucky because a lot of people do not know where to start to find the care they need.
The Summit County Mental Wellness Alliance is helping by informing the community about available resources for people who are struggling. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the alliance is hosting “Finding Mental Health Services: How to Navigate Resources and Advocate for Your Loved One.” https://www.mham2024.com/
The free event — which is being held in collaboration with Park City Community Foundation, the Summit County Health Department and Intermountain Health — is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. May 22, with a repeat session on May 30. These sessions will take place at the Blair Education Center at Intermountain Health Park City Hospital, 900 Round Valley Drive.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, and more than one in five youths ages 13 to 18 have had a seriously debilitating mental illness. About one in 25 adults lives with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, the CDC says.
Jamie Belnap, women’s residential treatment lead clinician at Wasatch Crest, said there is more public awareness about mental health issues and substance use disorders. She said many clients have experienced trauma, either in childhood or adulthood, that they are trying to work through.
The pandemic exacerbated mental health issues because people had less in-person support and were more isolated, Belnap said.
“I think community is so important with both substance use disorder and with mental health in general,” she said.
Some places and organizations, including Wasatch Crest, have designated May as Women’s Mental Health Month.
The center has separate residential programs for women and men and mixed-gender outpatient treatment. The gender-specific care, which began in April 2023 when Wasatch Crest opened its women’s facility in Park City, includes a lot of group therapy and individual sessions with therapists and has been successful, according to Belnap.
“It allows a lot of our clients to open up and where they’ve had physical and sexual trauma, this creates a good environment for them to be able to talk about that openly and honestly,” she said.
Wheelock got outpatient gender-specific treatment through another facility before Wasatch Crest started its own program.
“There’s a power in a big group of women supporting each other,” she said. “There’s a sisterhood that supports each other and cheers each other on.”
Law enforcement also is reaching out to people who need help. When Park City police officials saw an uptick in 2020 of mental health calls, an increase they attributed partly to the COVID-19 pandemic, they took action.
Lt. Jay Randall said all Park City police officers now take the Crisis Intervention Team program’s course to increase their awareness of mental health issues and learn techniques for dealing with people in crisis, he said. The initial course is 40 hours and training is ongoing.
The teams include specially trained members from the law enforcement, criminal justice services and behavioral health fields. The training ensures that when officers respond to a call involving someone with mental health issues, they have the tools to de-escalate the situation or offer services, Randall said.
The department also has formed partnerships with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team and nonprofits throughout the Wasatch Back to provide services quickly to those in crisis, he said.
In addition, the department, in partnership with area communities, has an outreach program that gives police, fire and medical services quick access to essential information about people with special needs or mental illness when they are in crisis.
Individuals or their parents can fill out a special needs/mental health outreach form that includes their name, date of birth, physical description, known triggers and behaviors and calming methods. The information goes into a database that can be accessed only by the Park City Police Department, Park City Fire District, Summit County Sheriff’s Office and Kamas City Police: parkcity.org/departments/police/special-needs-mental-health-outreach/special-needs-mental-health-information-form
The program is designed to improve response times, reduce confusion and allow responding personnel to be better prepared when they arrive on the scene of a call.
Randall said there have been calls involving autistic children when it was helpful to know they are triggered by a uniform or drawn to water. Knowing that, someone who is not in a uniform can respond to a call or a search for a missing child can focus on water sources, he said.
“We have had a few of those occurrences where that information was vital,” he said.
When people know there are resources available, they’re more likely to seek help, Randall said. He emphasized police are ready to connect people facing challenges with those resources through their partnerships.
“It’s nice to know that we have professionals and nonprofits and organizations that truly want to make a difference,” Randall said.