Wellness@Work Will be a Virtual Event to Align with Covid-19 Social Distancing Recommendations
At Disability:IN North Carolina, the unexpected disruption of COVID-19 continues to remind us just how agile and equipped the disability community is when called to quickly adapt to unforeseen obstacles by finding innovative ways to meet the needs of our Business Members/Sponsors and Community Partners.
Please join us on Monday, May 4th from 9 AM to 11:30 AM for our Wellness@Work virtual event! Registration is now open!! Thank you to MetLife and their Diverse Abilities Network for serving as our host-sponsors for this event. Companies like MetLife understand that our country is experiencing a major crisis in mental health and COVID-19 has only magnified the issue.
Come join businesses that promote workplace wellness and become part of the solution to this crisis.
Join us to hear Dr. Tom Dooley, an entrepreneurial biomedical research scientist, as he shares a profoundly personal message entitled, “The High Cost of Anxiety” and what impact COVID-19 is anticipated to have on mental health. The “Opioid Crisis” has cost more than 13,000 North Carolinian’s their lives from unintentional overdoses since 1999. Dr. Thomas Dooley has served in various leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry and in academia. He was the founder and CEO of several biomedical companies and the recipient of an endowed chair position at Southern Research. He received a PhD in molecular biology from Indiana University, followed by postdoctoral training at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, England. He has authored 75 scientific publications, 15 issued patents, and 4 nonfiction books. Dr. Dooley’s son was prescribed benzodiazepine medications for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder as an adolescent, which started him on the path toward addiction. Tragically, his son died from an opioid overdose in 2017, as one of 72,000 overdose victims that year. His son’s life struggles inspired Dr. Dooley to invent PanX® a new class of anti-anxiety medications. Dooley will present insights on the Opioid Crisis and potential solutions, including his own research that led toward an alternative therapy for anxiety disorders. He will also discuss the mental health ramifications of the current COVID-19 Crisis…in other words, two crises in a single presentation! [www.TomDooley.org]
Following Dr. Dooley’s presentation, Jonathan Kappler, Senior Advisor & Chief of Staff Office of NC’s Deputy Secretary for Behavioral Health & Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities will moderate a roundtable discussion with area mental health leaders on strategies that support mental health in our jobs, communities and lives in times of crisis.
Disability:IN North Carolina is offering Wellness@Work at no cost to enable everyone affected by the COVID-19 to participate. Though registration is free, registration is required and participants will have the opportunity to make donations in lieu of a registration fee if desired.