News Clips
Mental Health Colorado: Mental health holds in jails have to go
By Jen Marnowski
Special to the Daily Record
One of the biggest mental health issues the Colorado General Assembly will address this session is the placement of individuals on involuntary mental health holds in jails. Current law allows law enforcement to put a person having a mental health crisis in jail, without charges, if they are a danger to themselves or others. Colorado is one of only six states where this practice is still legal.
The bill known as SB17-207 (Senate Bill 207) would stop this practice and improve the system of care set up to help people in ...
Bill expands mental health support for rural communities
KUSA - Mental illness is not a crime, yet Coloradans who suffer a mental health crisis can still find themselves in a jail cell for up to 24 hours.
A bill introduced into the Colorado Senate last week would do away with the practice that happens mostly in rural counties along the western slope that have limited access to mental health resources.
“We’re only one of six states left in the country that allows this practice,” Moe Keller said, vice president of public policy for Mental Health Colorado.
Keller sat on a panel made up of legislators, county ...
Colorado and Company KUSA-TV
Sign up for the Lead Workshop. It's Friday, March 10 at the PPA Event Center in Denver. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Register online at www.MentalHealthColorado.org. You can also call 720.208.2233 for more information. Registration closes Wednesday, March 8.
Boulder County study identifies mental health service gaps, barriers
Boulder County residents needing mental health and substance abuse treatment services face gaps in, and barriers of access to, available services, according to a recently released county report.
That Community of Hope Mental Health Community Assessment cited such problems as difficulties in getting access to services in a timely manner, the high costs of some services, a growing paucity in the county's behavioral science work force, limited prevention and early detection and intervention services, a scarcity of trained mental health providers in the schools, and a lack ...
How do we preserve mental health care as an essential benefit?
By Andrew Romanoff, Guest Commentary
What can we agree on?
That’s a question worth asking, as a new herd of lawmakers gathers in Denver and Washington. Last year’s elections probably convinced many Americans that the answer is “almost nothing at all.”
Not so fast.
While the presidential race proved to be one of the most divisive in recent memory, a few signs of consensus emerged in Colorado. The subject: mental health.
In August, our nonpartisan organization asked every candidate for the Colorado General Assembly where they stood on the prevention ...
Colorado must stop using jails for people in mental health crisis, panel says
By JENNIFER BROWN | jbrown@denverpost.com
PUBLISHED: January 4, 2017 at 5:20 pm | UPDATED: January 5, 2017 at 1:00 am
Colorado should stop using jails to house people placed on involuntary mental health holds who haven’t been charged with a crime, says a task force created by Gov. John Hickenlooper.
The state is one of only six that still put people having a mental health episode behind bars.
The 30-member panel, ordered by Hickenlooper after he vetoed a bill in June that would have strengthened Colorado’s 72-hour mental health hold law, acknowle...
Mental health group looks to solve issues
By Crystal Nelson
Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 3:29 pm
Officials at Mental Health Colorado came to Brighton on Wednesday, Dec. 7, to find out what residents here need in terms of mental health programs.
The state nonprofit group found that area residents want more access to mental health care and lower insurance deductibles for care. The group held meetings throughout the state in recent weeks, hearing from residents in Fort Collins and Grand Junction, Pueblo and Aurora, among others.
“Most of the folks who join our conversation are not satisfied with ...
Denver deputy accused of telling mentally ill inmate to ‘just die’ has suspension overturned
By: Jennifer Kovaleski, Blair Miller
DENVER – A Denver sheriff’s deputy suspended for allegedly telling a mentally ill inmate on suicide watch to “just die” had his suspension overturned Friday by the Denver Career Service Board.
The mentally ill inmate was being housed in a special suicide cell that is designed to prevent suicide.
Read the hearing officer's judgment in full by clicking here.
Denver Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Bosveld had been suspended for 10 days for neglect of duty and failure to observe written departmental or agency regulations. ...
Mental health advocates want to hear concerns about the system
DENVER -- Andrew Romanoff knows intimately how a family can be blind-sided by the consequences of mental health concerns that go undiagnosed and untreated.
He lost a close cousin to suicide and turned his grief into a passion for changing the way Colorado thinks about, treats and funds mental health.
"It's a real crisis in our state," Romanoff said.
He is in the middle of a listening tour across the state, hearing concerns from people in rural and urban cities about mental health.
The Mental Health Colorado nonprofit estimates 1 in 4 Coloradans will experience a ...
NAMI survey report: Too many gaps in mental health insurance coverage
ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reveals new information about the gap between health insurance coverage of mental health and substance abuse conditions and that of other medical conditions.
Out-of-Network, Out-of-Pocket, Out-of-Options: The Unfulfilled Promise of Parity focuses specifically on the limits of in-network mental health care providers and excessive out-of-pocket costs for people seeking mental health care.
"Despite federal law, discrimination ...
