Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are a valuable resource for families dealing with complicated challenges, including stress, depression, anxiety, and even suicide. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with the Cook Center for Human Connection to find out how they are helping families access some of the very best programs available in fostering strong mental health. They are a force for good in the community and Jordan School District is a partner, hoping to help families in need of life-saving and life-improving services.

We’re here with Anne Brown, the President and CEO of the Cook Center for Human Connection. Anne, thanks for joining us.

Anne Brown:
Thank you, Dr. Godfrey, for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm looking forward to talking with you about some of the resources that are offered to our parents and employees through the Cook Center. And I know that we recently had a representative come and speak with school community council chairs at our district-wide school community council meeting. And they were really enthusiastic to hear about some of the things that are being offered. We've emailed the information out before and we've shared it on our website, but I thought this would be a good chance for us to sit down and talk a little bit more about all the great things that parents have access to, to help them with their kids.

Anne Brown:
Yeah, absolutely. We are happy to be providing these services to you. We have two things. One thing is on your website, there's a little circle medallion that is called parentguidance.org. Parentguidance.org is a place for parents to go and be able to find information when they might be dealing with difficult parts of parenting. Things like my child struggling with anxiety or depression, or perhaps their child is cutting, or they could even be experiencing some suicide ideation.

There's courses that are directed specifically for parents that are struggling with these needs and every course is done by a licensed therapist or a psychologist or a psychiatrist. So it's kind of like finding that friend that you could really get some great advice from when you're struggling with something that might be very difficult in your family. So that's available on your website for any family in your district to access, to be able to have. And that's done through a grant from the Cook Center, we make it available to any school district anywhere in the country.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that is really like having a very informed professional friend that can help you with some very specific concerns.

Anne Brown:
Absolutely, yes. And in addition, it's not all about just the problems of parenting. There's also courses on there, there's one called Parenting with a Purpose, and that just, you know, one of the things I always talk about is that not every parent has had child development courses. So you're an educator, I'm an educator by trade. I've had child development courses, but perhaps if you were a young mother, you maybe never had an opportunity to have a child development course. But also, if you're a Harvard MBA, you may not have ever had an opportunity to have a child development course. So it really, it really stretches the gamut. Every