On September 30, UHN Foundation joined Chatelaine for their inaugural wellness retreat. Attended by 150 guests, the event was an incredible success and a great experience for all. Guests enjoyed the beautiful Vettä Nordic Spa for a day of refreshing, learning and recharging.
During lunch, UHN Foundation’s UHN Impact Collective (UIC) Serving Knowledge Supper Club featured an impactful conversation with Dr. Sarah Levitt, a psychiatrist at UHN’s Centre for Mental Health. Dr. Levitt discussed mental health and how seasonal changes, traumatic weather events and other aspects of climate change can affect our mental health.
“Not all emotional distress around climate crisis should be pathologized or is necessarily indicative of a mental disorder,” says Dr. Levitt. “These are scary times. Even what we’ve seen in the news over the last week (referring to Hurricane Fiona), it’s expected that people may feel anxious or a lot of grief around what is happening. Hopefully, we can find community in some of those emotions and some of that distress brings us to action to facilitate change.”
At their onsite pop-up members of the UIC’s Women in Philanthropy initiative were on hand to talk about UHNWomen – a University Health Network (UHN) program focused on helping empower and uplift women at UHN. The UIC’s Women in Philanthropy initiative was created with a goal of inviting current and future donors to support the female-driven strategic priorities brought forward by UHNWomen. Guests were gifted Success Planners and Self-Love colouring books generously donated by Karlyn Percil.
Guests also enjoyed a nourishing dinner, restorative yoga and a curated breakout session which offered a wealth of knowledge as women and supporters of the event connected through inspiring and insightful conversations.
Thank you to all that attended the special edition of the UIC Serving Knowledge Supper Club and for the important and open conversation with Dr. Levitt about the climate crisis and its impact on mental health.
Learn more about the UHN Impact Collective and their events here.
