34 results for tag: #denver

Colorado doctors highlight patient safety and preparation as key priorities in state’s development of psilocybin therapy rules

January 29, 2024 By: Shane Ersland Colorado is in the process of developing rules for the rollout of its psilocybin therapy program, and mental health experts highlighted some components that will factor into those decisions last week. Mental Health Colorado and Healing Advocacy Fund will host a series of webinars about the rollout of psilocybin services in the state over the next couple months, and held the first session on Thursday. “We know that natural medicines have been used safely for millennia by cultures for healing, and Colorado can do better to promote health and healing by reducing its focus on criminal punishments for ...

Decades-old rule pushes mentally ill Coloradans out of hospitals too soon. Legislators may finally change it.

December 11, 2023 By: Seth Klammann Barbara Vassis keeps a spreadsheet to track her daughter’s years-long journey through Colorado’s patchwork mental health system. The sheet goes back 11 years, a third of Erin’s life. There are holes in the narrative: Her daughter is schizophrenic bipolar, Vassis said, and she’s moved around different parts of the country. Still, even incomplete, Vassis’ growing tracker provides a glimpse at the revolving doors that Erin and hundreds of other Coloradans are stuck in every year. From April 2021 to April 2022, for instance, Erin spent 106 days bouncing between emergency rooms, detox facilities, ...

Denver’s Eating Recovery Center ignored patients’ repeated suicide attempts, state investigation finds

November 13, 2023 By: Seth Klamman Two young patients repeatedly attempted to kill themselves in a three-week span earlier this year at a leading Denver eating disorder clinic after a doctor told staff to ignore their behavior, a state investigation found. The two patients — aged 11 and 14 — arrived at the nationally renowned Eating Recovery Center’s Spruce Street clinic in Denver within a day of each other in early June. Both had histories of self-harm and suicidal ideation, in addition to their eating disorders. As their behavior escalated, lower-level staff raised concerns that they weren’t capable of caring for the patients. ...

Colorado addiction experts prioritize care for individuals leaving carceral settings

November 7, 2023 By: Shane Ersland Helping Coloradans who struggle with addiction, particularly for individuals transitioning out of a carceral setting, will require greater availability of adequate treatment services in the state, according to health leaders. Harm Reduction Action Center Executive Director Lisa Raville and Mental Health Colorado President and CEO Vincent Atchity discussed the state’s addiction-related challenges at the 2023 Colorado State of Reform Health Policy Conference last month. “At Mental Health Colorado, we acknowledge that humans have used a wide variety of substances, ranging from caffeine and tea to things ...