Project Resilience: Becoming Resilient By Overcoming Resistance

In this Project Resilience vignette, UPR producer Mary Heers tells us how card playing has helped her meet new people and make connections over the years.

As part of UPR’s Project Resilience series, producer Mary Heers introduces us to a young husband and wife who are familiar with the challenges of adapting when life takes a sudden turn. 

Mary: Janelle Carter wanted to become a German teacher ever since she took her first German class in the seventh grade and was right on track. It was only supposed to be a short trip to Montana to visit her husband's family. Colton went out four wheeling with his friends. Janelle stayed home because she was four months pregnant. Then everything changed. Colton lost control of his four wheeler and hit a tree so hard it broke his back and severed his spinal cord.

Many longtime UPR listeners may remember Utah Public Radio reporter Rhesa Ledbetter. Rhesa has a PhD in biochemistry from Utah State University, is a science professor at Idaho State University, and is an award-winning storyteller. 

Women do the lion’s share of unpaid care work in Utah, spending an average of 5.6 hours a day looking after children or parents. Utah’s women in their 40s and 50s often spend time doing both child and elder care. It makes for some stressful moments in the best of times, and the pandemic adds some new challenges.

“All of the things together, like being pregnant in a foreign country while mourning the loss of my brother, felt like the hardest thing I've ever done. And I've done hard things before as we all have. But for me, these were the hardest together and the timing of them and I felt so alone.”

Derrik Tollefson is Professor of Social Work and head of the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology at Utah State University. He also directs the I-System Institute for Transdisciplinary Studies at USU.

A study from the Urban Indian Health Institute found that Utah ranks 8th in the nation for the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Our new learn-from-home courses are free, fun and available to you and your family. Classes are led by Southern Utah experts volunteering their time and talents in interactive 45-minute sessions. Learn techniques for green thumb gardening, interior decorating, making Italian cuisine and even take a virtual hike with a southern Utah geologist. 

As things are beginning to reopen, we want to invite visitors to experience the wonders of Utah's Canyon Country with the San Juan Strong promise to do their part to keep us and our communities healthy. 

At the gateway to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, it’s been unusually quiet this spring. Moab shut the door to visitors for six long weeks during what is usually the busiest time of year. The town is still not fully open, and many locals are dealing with continued unemployment and financial insecurity. All around tensions are high.  

Shalayne Smith Needham: We have all dealt with the effects of COVID-19 in one way or another and some of us will come out of this a new person. Joining us to discuss this is Dr. David Schram, an associate professor of human development and family studies in the College of Education at Utah State University. 

There are many tourism opportunities right in your own backyard. They are a great way to cope during COVID-19 and a great way to become more resilient.

It’s no secret Utah is a majority white state. That majority holds true for mental health workers as well, and it’s part of what makes culturally responsive therapy important. 

Ah, that first year of college. It’s like this tidal wave of freedom. And pressure.

As part of the Utah Public Radio series, Project Resilience, we hear from retired Northern Utah teacher Barbara Abbott, who remembers times she would take her wayward dog Cedar Bear to work with students at Hillcrest Elementary.

Shalayne Smith Needham: In stressful times, it's important to reach out to friends, family, and especially children who need guidance during these hard times. Callie Ward is an Extension assistant professor at Utah State University and specializes in family finance, family resource management, emergency preparedness and food preservation. Callie Ward joins us by phone from Garfield County. Thanks for being here. 

A while back on Access Utah, Michael Sowder, USU professor of English and affiliated professor of religious studies, helped us learn some of the history and current practice of yoga. On Tuesday’s Access Utah he’ll lead us in an exploration of mindfulness and meditation, which may be of special interest during these times of pandemic.

Being stuck at home all day has led many people to feel they should get more done-- get their side hustle going, learn to play the piano, get in shape. Social media may fuel or heighten this pressure as people see others post their goals online as part of a trend that is sometimes called "quarantine glow-up."

From social distancing to new levels of anxiety and distress, the coronavirus pandemic has rapidly transformed our lives. On Sunday morning at 10:00, tune in to UPR to hear an interfaith program featuring messages of hope tailored to this particular moment.

Social distancing means the Cache Employment and Training Center has to be creative in the ways they serve their clients.  

According to a 2018 study from the Urban Indian Health Institute, Utah ranks 8th in the nation for the   

number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Utah legislators recently formed a task force to address why Utah’s numbers are so high. But the bill is only a part of the overall work being done to address this issue. 

Deena Pyle, the communication director for the non-profit Utah Humanities, said she’s impressed and inspired by the ways people are fighting to stay connected despite all of the social distancing initiatives enacted in the state to slow the spread of the coronavirus. So inspired, she created the organization’s Virtual Campfire social media and email campaign to encourage conversations about the impact of the humanities in our lives.

As concerns about shortages of personal protective equipment and hospital overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic grew, Utah’s governor issued an executive order last month stopping all elective surgeries in the state. For one Cedar City family, this means their five-month-old baby is awaiting a postponed cleft lip and palate surgery.

“Vernal strong” is the motto right now in one Unitah Basin community as residents work together to help each other through not only the global pandemic, but also the downturn in the oil and gas  industry which has hit the community hard. 

Being a new parent can be exhausting. 

Jordan: “You’d be falling asleep and you’re so tired and then you have some kind of thought of, ‘Oh, he’s in the bed with us,’ and  you forgot that you put him in his crib, so he’s in the crib, but then you’re all stressed looking through the bed trying to find him.” 

There’s an ever-growing number of free telephone and online resources for Utahns who are dealing with stress and anxiety brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and related job losses. Morissa Henn, the Community Health program director at Intermountain Healthcare, is part of the group that formed the Emotional Health Relief Hotline to help Utahns with mental-health needs as they arise.