The National Speaking of Women’s Health Foundation will no longer be holding Speaking of Women’s Health conferences on a national scale. Without the backing of the national organization -- which KUED enjoyed for the last eight years –we are unable to continue offering the conference in Salt Lake City.

During this time of transition, KUED remains committed to the health and well-being of our community. We are looking for opportunities to continue bringing expert information and programs on health-related issues. One of KUED’s primary outreach initiatives has long been Health Matters. As part of this initiative, we have held free workshops on Alzheimers, Caring for Your Parents, Voices of Hope: Suicide is not an Option, Substance of Denial and other health-and wellness related issues. We haveproduced programs on barriers to health care, stroke, breast cancer, heart disease in women, teen depression and suicide, hormone replacement, diabetes and others.

We are pursuing a week-long University-wide health fair in collaboration with Blue Cross- Blue Shield and University Hospitals and Clinics. This event of family-friendly, health-related sessions and workshops are expected to draw between 14,000 and 16,000 attendees. The project will expand the scope of Health Matters to include the entire family. We are looking for additional partners to expand the scope of the project.

In addition, we will continue to seek out health-related programs that engage and inform your daily life. For example, this month, we broadcast several health-related documentaries, including Frontline: Released about the hundreds of thousands of prisoners with serious mental illnesses who will be released into communities across America. Frontline examines what happened to the mentally ill when they leave prison. As a follow-up, KUED’s Utah NOW will look at the issue locally. KUED also will air Cry for Help, featuring first-person stories of adolescents confronting mental illness, depression and anxiety. A special advance screening and panel discussion were scheduled around this program.

Our Ready to Learn initiative, in which we conduct workshops for parents and caregivers of at-risk pre-schoolers, incorporates health information for kids, as well.

We’re exploring health-related program opportunities along with new and existing funding sources. We’re talking with other public broadcasting stations nationwide on ways to support the many people in our communities who have lost health insurance.

We thank you, as always, for your long-standing support of KUED.