In May 2023, the nonprofit Connect Summit County began serving as a convenor for organizations in the mental wellness space along the Wasatch Back. Four months later, Connect had closed its doors.

Summit County Health Department Director Phil Bondurant said Aaron Newman was hired as director when the alliance formed in 2016. Three years later, Newman was moved to serve as Summit County’s director of behavioral health, leaving a gap in alliance activity.

“We are reviving the position of director of the Mental Health Alliance in an effort to get us back to the basics of what the alliance should be doing,” Bondurant said. “We have seen some stakeholders in our community need to move away from the behavioral health field. We have seen several stakeholders radically change their roles and responsibilities. And after nearly a decade of service and efforts to improve access and care, it’s probably time to take a step back and look at things.”

In partnership with Park City Community Foundation, Park City Municipal and Summit County Health Dept. the decision was made to bring back a full-time Alliance Director on a two-year contract.

“To really assess the system as a whole, determine what the alliance is, should be and can be, and then present those findings to the executive committee so we can chart a way forward,” he said.

For the next two years, the director position will be a contract position, not an employee, which is why the county issued an RFP as opposed to a hire position.

“We’re looking for somebody with some experience in behavioral health, mental health, with substance use prevention, but also with organizational assessment and the ability to really give us direction,” he said. “Then two years from now, when that contract is up, if, if the findings indicate that this might be best suited under the county umbrella, then I think you would see a decision made going forward that might bring that under the county umbrella . umbrella as a full-time employee.”

Meanwhile, Bondurant said the county continues to move forward with renewing its behavioral health care contract with the University of Utah, which has been extended through the end of the year but at twice the price.

Bondurant said he is trying to get a five-year contract and believes the contract will be signed by the time the county board passes its 2025 budget.