Staff Report
For the second year in a row, Allan Hancock College’s Student Health Services will partner with local community organizations to host a special forum on mental health.
This year, Hancock is joining Transitions-Mental Health (TMHA) and the LEAD Project to host “From Burnout to Resilience: Thriving in a Digital World.” The event will be held virtually on Oct. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. and will focus on dealing with stress and anxiety in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world.
“Many new stressors that have arisen have taken a huge toll on our mental health as individuals and collectively. In this digital age that has been rapidly unfolding, we are facing a new type of burnout—digital burnout,” said Hancock Student Health Services Specialist Xixi Zhai. “The goal for this year’s forum is to present strategies to prevent and alleviate digital burnout, promote self-care and compassion and improve everyone’s mental wellness.”
Featured speakers at this year’s event will include Amy Kathleen Lee and Hamza Kahn. Lee is an award-winning eating disorder recovery advocate, passionate motivational speaker and suicide prevention trainer who has shared her powerful story of overcoming childhood trauma, an eating disorder, self-harm and attempted suicide with more than 4,000 youth across the Central Coast. She is also a QPR suicide prevention trainer and the CEO of her own nonprofit, Dancing with ED.
Kahn is a multi-award-winning marketer, best-selling author, and global keynote speaker whose TEDx talk “Stop Managing, Start Leading” has been viewed over 1 million times. His presentations and talks seek to empower youth and early talent. Kahn also works as managing director of Student Life Network, Canada’s largest and most comprehensive education resource platform, which reaches over 2.7 million students.
Hancock, TMHA and LEAD partnered last year to present a similar in-person forum. The group, which calls itself the Alliance for Mental Health, chose to host this year’s forum virtually to protect the health and safety of participants.
Community members interested in registering for this event can register at www.allianceformentalwellness.com.
