Barrett Rothe (D)

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Do you support school policies and funding that increase the availability of mental health services in schools and early childhood settings?

  • Yes
Do you support additional funding for follow-up care for individuals after a suicide attempt or overdose?
  • Yes: I would like to see better mental health care coverage within existing coverage options, and state-level funding sources for mental health services for the uninsured.
Do you support extreme risk protection orders?
  • Yes: This is a central piece of my campaign platform as Deputy Parrish, for whom the 2018 Red Flag bill was named after, was killed in my district and my opponent nonetheless voted no on the Red Flag law bill.
Do you support strengthening laws and transparency requirements compelling insurance companies to provide coverage for the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders that is equal to the coverage provided for a physical illness?
  • Yes: I want us to do more to treat mental health as completely equal to physical health, both in coverage and perception.
Do you support strengthening requirements that insurance companies have enough mental health and substance use professionals to guarantee their members have a choice of provider?
  • Yes: However we must also do more to fund mental health professional training programs, reduce tuition costs, and recruit providers; if we insist there be more coverage we should cultivate the provider market too.
Do you support requirements that hospitals and other providers report information on treatment availability to help individuals, hospitals and law enforcement locate available treatment for people in crisis?
  • Yes
Do you support providing state funds to expand capacity for mental health and substance use treatment in underserved areas of the state?
  • Yes: Particularly rural Colorado.
Do you support additional state investments in affordable housing with supportive services for people with mental health or substance use disorders?
  • Yes: I wrote my graduate degree capstone paper on the cost of homelessness for local government and how it’s invariably more cost-effective for state and local government to provide housing and services directly rather than subsidize homelessness (and mental health disorders) through indirect spending and “hidden” costs.