To Your Health returns from summer hiatus, offers ‘holiday blues’ talk

BETHEL — After taking a summer hiatus, Western Mountains Senior College’s program, To Your Health, is kicking off their seventh year with a presentation from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, called “How to Keep the Holidays Happy: Managing the Holiday Blues.”

The event, which will take place at the West Parish Congregational Church on Church Street, will feature Stephanie LeBlanc, LCSW, and Torrey Harrison, LCSW, both Tri-County Mental Health experts.

Rosabelle Tifft, chairman of the To Your Health program, said that the program will hold two fall events, one event in the winter and two more in the spring. The upcoming event, Tifft said, is the first time the group has approached the topic of seasonal affective disorder and the “holiday blues” in a while.

“We do evaluations after all of our programs and, last year, the topic of depression came up a lot,” Tifft said. “We knew that depression takes place about this time of year, so we tried to reach out and see if we could find some good speakers to talk to the residents.”

Tifft said that Tri-County Mental Health Services was “very good” about pointing the Western Mountains Senior College towards LeBlanc and Harrison.

“They both told us that the holiday blues starts with Halloween and ends with Valentine’s Day, something I wasn’t aware of,” Tifft said. “I’m excited for them to visit and explain a little bit about what the blues are and how to fight them off during the holidays.”

Harrison is a graduate of Smith College School for Social Work and currently manages the Tri-County Mental Health Services clinic in Windham.

LeBlanc holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of New England, a minor in psychology and has been with Tri-County Mental Health Services since 2005, serving as the Adult Clinical Services Manager.

For more information, call Tifft at 824-2053.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com