1041 results for author: Mental Health Colorado

Colorado Lawmakers Prioritize Mental Health in 2019 Session 

Bills would expand school access, allow for advance behavioral health orders DENVER, Jan. 7—As the 2019 legislative session kicks off, Mental Health Colorado applauded lawmakers for making mental health a priority by introducing key bills to improve prevention and treatment services throughout the state. One measure addresses the critical shortage of mental health resources in schools by bolstering the existing School Health Professional Grant Program to allow schools to team up with community partners to provide behavioral health services. A provision letting schools take advantage of telehealth technology would be especially ...

Psychiatrists hard to come by in Colorado Springs

By: Faith Miller January 2, 2019 Need to make an appointment with a psychiatrist in Colorado Springs? Good luck. In 2013, the last time the community collected data on the number of psychiatrists per capita, there were only 9.1 practicing for every 100,000 people in the metropolitan area, according to Pikes Peak United Way’s Quality of Life Indicators Report. That was 37 percent below the national average at the time. According to Mike Ware, CEO of the El Paso County Medical Society, the shortage has probably gotten worse — given the area’s explosive population growth and the number of psychiatrists who have recently retired. ...

Colorado lawmakers prioritize mental health in 2019 session

January 8, 2019 DENVER —As the 2019 legislative session kicks off, Mental Health Colorado applauded lawmakers for making mental health a priority by introducing key bills to improve prevention and treatment services throughout the state. One measure addresses the critical shortage of mental health resources in schools by bolstering the existing School Health Professional Grant Program to allow schools to team up with community partners to provide behavioral health services. A provision letting schools take advantage of telehealth technology would be especially valuable in rural areas, where specialists may be harder to come by. Sponsored by ...

Youth Suicide Study Shows Unemployment Is A Risk Factor

By: Ali Budner January 7, 2019 The Mountain West has some of the highest teen suicide rates in the country. A new report out of the region looks at what conditions contribute to the high rate of youth suicide.  The yearlong study came out of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.  "Colorado has a teen suicide rate that’s twice as high as the national average,” said Andrew Romanoff, the director of Mental Health Colorado. “Just a staggering heartbreaking statistic.” The Attorney General’s study focused on the four counties with the highest suicide rates: El Paso, Pueblo, Mesa and La ...

New report details what may be causing youth suicide crisis

COLORADO – A new report from the Colorado Attorney General’s office takes a look at what may be causing the state’s youth suicide crisis. The report is almost 90-pages long and it specifically lists stress factors like rigorous school day schedules that don’t allow children any time to decompress and cyberbullying from social media. Key findings:   Risk factors attributing to youth suicide: Pressure and anxiety about failing.Social media and cyber bullying.Lack of prosocial activities.Lack of connection to a caring adult.Judgement and lack of acceptance in the community.Substance use, mental health disorders and trauma ...

Prisons are housing mental health patients who’ve committed no crimes

By: Julianne Hill January 2019 Photo by Benjavisa/Getty Images Andrew Butler was a popular kid at Hollis Brookline High School in New Hampshire, an honors student who was captain of the football and wrestling teams. Then, during college, Andrew tore his leg muscles, making even walking to class difficult. He started struggling with depression, and after talking with his dad, he decided to take time off from his chemical engineering studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. One weekend in July 2017, Andrew went camping in Vermont with friends. When he came back, he was acting strangely, running around in the ...

2019 Priorities

At Mental Health Colorado, we’re bringing a broad range of proposals to state lawmakers. Among other requests, we’re asking the General Assembly and the governor to: ■ Fund the Zero Suicide framework, training health care, education, and law enforcement personnel to spot the early warning signs of suicidal ideation. ■ Strengthen the enforcement of mental health parity laws, requiring public and private insurers to provide sufficient coverage for the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. ■ Create a statewide bed tracking system, enabling Coloradans to find the nearest available psychiatric or substance use ...

When you die by suicide, you don’t end your pain — you transfer it

December 30, 2018 By: Andrew Romanoff On the third Tuesday of each month, Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village hosts a meeting that no one wants to attend. I visited the church in October, shortly after dusk. A sign pointed me to a meeting room in the back of the building, at the end of a dark hallway. Inside the room, two dozen women and men sat quietly around a conference table. They each introduced themselves and then shared the names of their children — a son or a daughter who had died by suicide. When my turn came, I talked about my cousin Melissa, who was like a sister to me. She killed herself on New Year's Day in ...

Colorado attorney general grants $800,000 for mental health toolkits in classrooms

December 21, 2018 By: Byron Reed View full story on 9News. Mental Health Colorado is the state’s leading advocate for the prevention and treatment of mental health.   Back in May, it launched the School Mental Health Kit, which is aimed at bringing awareness to classrooms, like Andrew Romanoff, the president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado.  Photo by KUSA “Suicide has become the leading cause of death among adolescents in Colorado,” Romanoff said.  “We’re losing more than 1,100 people -- including 80 children -- to suicide each year so this is a crisis that touches every family in the state including ...

MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY GROUP AIMS TO CHANGE PUBLIC OPINION, POLICY IN COLORADO

By: Stephanie Daniel  Dec. 13, 2018 The life expectancy of Americans continues to decline. This is driven in part by an increase in drug overdoses and suicides, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control. This is especially troubling in Colorado, which ranks among the top ten in suicide rates.ListenListening...4:53The head of Mental Health Colorado discusses the organization's priorities for 2019. KUNC's Stephanie Daniel spoke with Andrew Romanoff, president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado, an advocacy organization, to find out what can the state do to address the needs of those struggling with mental health issues.Inter...