SALT LAKE CITY — COVID-19 made the need for mental health care “more urgent,” according to local leaders, and the new Huntsman Mental Health Institute will continue to help Utahns years after the pandemic, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
On Thursday, the University of Utah dedicated the Salt Lake City facility, which was announced in 2019 with a$150 million gift from the Huntsman Foundation.
”No one could have predicted what came next and how our lives would be upended by the pandemic since then,” said Ruth Watkins, outgoing president at the U., in a video.
The university’s 170-bed hospital facility and network of outpatient clinics, formerly the University Neuropsychiatric Institute, are now under the new Huntsman Mental Health Institute brand.
Going forward, leaders’ priorities include addressing “the fear and ignorance of stigma, the crisis of suicide,” preemptive interventions for mental disorders in younger people, and rural mental health care, among other topics, according to Dr. Mark Rapaport, the institute’s CEO and chair of the psychology department.
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