1041 results for author: Mental Health Colorado

No Colorado school districts meet federal safety standards for behavioral health staffing, investigation shows

By: Christopher Osher & Jennifer Brown April 12, 2019 Tamara Durbin is responsible for making sure more than 4,300 students across some 5,000 square miles of Colorado’s Eastern Plains get mental health care when they need it. She does so with a patchwork of staffers that comes nowhere close to what the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for student safety. Link to the full story. Originally appeared on The Colorado Sun.

Safe 2 Tell tips show demand for mental health resources at school

By: Andy Koen April 17, 2019 DENVER – Tools developed in the aftermath of the Columbine school shooting point to an underserved need in Colorado classrooms; better access to mental health resources. Data compiled by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office show calls and texts by students to Safe 2 Tell tip line quadrupled in recent years from fewer than 4,000 tips during the 2014-2015 school year to some 16,000 tips last year. As of March, more than 14,000 tips were recorded for the current school year. Of those tips, the most frequent each year involves students contemplating suicide. In fact, three of the top five categories of ...

The healing power of nature – Studies show being outdoors reduces stress, depression and anxiety

By: Shanna Fortier April 10, 2019 After graduating college, Travis Wild soon found that spending time in the mountains and on trails in Colorado gave him a place to reconnect with himself and restore his mind. “For me, the outdoors are how everything is supposed to be without influence of problems,” Wild said, adding that nature has been the steady support in his life through rough times. When he was diagnosed with testicular cancer almost five years ago, at age 26, Wild turned to nature to destress and cope with the difficult situation. The diagnosis came when he was changing jobs, changing relationships and mourning the loss of his ...

Colorado Legislators Seek Parity for Mental Health Treatment

April 8, 2019 According to Mental Health Colorado, over one million Colorado citizens live with a mental health issue or substance use disorder, though only half are estimated to receive the care they need with many going without care entirely, even if they have health insurance.Mental Health Colorado is one of the organizations supporting a bill that will ensure mental health care is treated equally to physical health care by insurance companies. House Bill 19-1269, which will hold insurers accountable to current state and federal parity laws that require treating mental health and addiction equal to physical health care, passed out of ...

Solutions to our youth mental health crisis within reach this year

By: Jena Hausmann April 8, 2019 Colorado is first in the nation on many fronts, most of which we are rightly proud of. But Colorado also has one of the highest rates of teen suicide in the nation. Pueblo County, along with El Paso, La Plata, and Mesa counties, have the highest rates of youth suicide in the state, according to a report released by the attorney general last year. Fortunately, we also have a chance this year to make our beautiful state a leader when it comes to youth mental health. Since 2015, suicide has taken the lives of more than 24 young people in Pueblo County. And theHealthy Kids Colorado 2017 survey shows 20.7 percent of ...

A Father’s Story: How Shoplifting Led to My Son Spending 7 Months in Solitary

By: Michael Roberts April 3, 2019 Later today in Colorado Springs, a young man will appear at a hearing that could lead to him spending the next five years in prison. He previously lingered for seven months in solitary confinement after allegedly assaulting a guard — a crime that likely took place because he was in the throes of a mental illness crisis for which he received no treatment following his arrest on a minor shoplifting charge. His mental condition went untreated while in solitary, too. Like his son, the young man's father, to whom we're referring anonymously, is beyond frustrated by the situation. After all, he'd contacted the ...

The healing power of nature | Studies show being outdoors reduces stress, depression and anxiety

By: Shanna Fortier April 10, 2019 After graduating college, Travis Wild soon found that spending time in the mountains and on trails in Colorado gave him a place to reconnect with himself and restore his mind. “For me, the outdoors are how everything is supposed to be without influence of problems,” Wild said, adding that nature has been the steady support in his life through rough times. When he was diagnosed with testicular cancer almost five years ago, at age 26, Wild turned to nature to de-stress and cope with the difficult situation. The diagnosis came when he was changing jobs, changing relationships and mourning the loss of his ...

Insurers have ignored mental health care despite a law prioritizing it. State Dems want to change that.

By: Faith Miller April 03, 2019 Coloradans aren’t getting proper mental health care. That’s not just an opinion — according to the law, it’s a fact. The federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was supposed to ensure that insurance carriers prioritized behavioral health (which encompasses mental health and substance use treatment) on the same level as physical health. But in Colorado, as in most other states, that’s not happening. In 2015, people here were seven times more likely to go out-of-network for behavioral health treatment than for primary care, a 2017 Milliman report found. The same report found ...

Bill would end insurance discrimination for mental health, addiction treatment: HB19-1269 addresses Colorado’s opioid and suicide crises

Media contacts: Kara Rowland, 202-288-2802 Aubree Hughes, 405-615-3845 DENVER, March 26 – More than a million Coloradans face a mental health or substance use disorder. Only half get the care they need. House Bill 19-1269 will hold insurers accountable to current state and federal parity laws that require treating mental health and addiction equal to physical health care. Colorado has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. The bill sponsors, Reps. Tom Sullivan and Lisa Cutter and Sen. Joann Ginal, are working with Mental Health Colorado to modernize behavioral health coverage laws and eliminate loopholes that allow many Colora...

Mental Health Colorado endorses bill to help those at risk of institutionalization

By: Kara Rowland March 30, 2019 Mental Health Colorado today endorsed legislation that would alleviate the strain on jails and other institutions by ensuring the state’s community behavioral health safety net system adequately serves the needs of all Coloradans. SB19-222 would establish safeguards so that those with serious mental health and substance use disorders, including co-occurring conditions, cannot be refused care. The bill represents a critical step in addressing Colorado’s longstanding competency restoration crisis, which may cost state taxpayers millions of dollars in fines. Without access to medication and other vital ...