News Clips
NEW FUNDING TO HELP SUPPORT YOUTH WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
October 16, 2018
By: Jeff Todd
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) – Nearly $3 million is jump-starting a shift in how mental health services are administered to Colorado’s youth.
(credit: CBS)
“I had to prove how sick I was in order to get the care I needed,” said Cora Galpern who has gone from patient to advocate. “I struggled most severely with an eating disorder. I was also struggling with depression and anxiety.”
Galpern says the system right now is set up to triage and only treat ‘the sickest of the sick.’
(credit: CBS)
“If people ...
NEW YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE WILL PROMOTE STATEWIDE COLLABORATION TO PREVENT TEEN SUICIDE
By: Jennifer Brown
Oct. 16, 2018
A children’s mental health initiative announced Tuesday could transform how Colorado identifies and treats kids and teens with depression, anxiety or eating disorders at the doctor and in the classroom.
Attorney General Cynthia Coffman announced a $2.8 million grant to launch a collaboration between Children’s Hospital Colorado and Mental Health Colorado that state leaders called “transformational.”
Read the full story at the Colorado Sun.
SOME WELD CANDIDATES FOR STATE LEGISLATURE RESPOND TO MENTAL HEALTH COLORADO SURVEY, SOME DON’T
By: Terry Frei
October 13, 2018
DENVER — Andrew Romanoff, the former Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, has a top-floor corner office in downtown Denver, three blocks from the Colorado State Capitol.
On a cloudless Friday morning, the view was potentially distracting as Romanoff — in his role as president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado — talked about the eight-question survey on mental health issues his organization sent to 179 candidates for the Colorado House and Senate. The answers of those who responded are posted on the Mental Health ...
ON YOUR BALLOT: $45M MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE IS NEEDED IN DENVER IN MIDST OF CRISIS, ADVOCATES SAY
By: Jackie Crea
October 15, 2018
DENVER — Denver voters will have a lot to consider when they fill out their ballots over the next few weeks, including spending millions of dollars to help those who need mental health care through proposed Ordinance 301 or Caring 4 Denver.
Emergency responders and law enforcement face a growing problem. Every year in the U.S., 35,000 people become disabled or a danger to themselves because of a severe mental health crisis, according to Andrew Romanoff, CEO of Mental Health Colorado. He is one of many advocates of the ballot ...
SUMMIT DAILY LETTERS: A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH ON THE BALLOT
By: Andrew Romanoff
October 12, 2018
Suppose you just landed on earth.
You go looking for the most beautiful place on the planet, so you come to Colorado. But amid the majesty of the mountains, you find people dying by suicide — more than 1,000 each year. Thousands more are sleeping on the streets or languishing in prison cells.
Here in Summit County, the suicide rate is three times the national average. Adults in the county have the highest rate of binge drinking in Colorado.
We can be shocked by these statistics or we can change them. The good news: Summit ...
WHERE GOVERNOR, AG CANDIDATES STAND ON RED FLAG LAWS
By: Joe St. George
October 8, 2018
DENVER - When Deputy Zackari Parrish was killed during an ambush on New Years Eve all of Colorado grieved.
However those emotions did not get the Zackari Parrish Violence Prevention Act passed at the State Capitol earlier this year.
The bill, which would have allowed family members and law enforcement officers to go before judges and request guns be temporarily taken away from individuals who pose risks, failed in the Republican controlled state Senate.
With a new crop of politicians set to enter the Capitol in ...
THE JONES FAMILY TALKS THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HEALTH
October 8, 2018
This week, you're gonna hear more conversations about mental health care as this is a nationally recognized week when organizations are trying to spark discussions to remove the stigma.
Originally appeared on 9News.
LAWS MANDATE EQUAL COVERAGE FOR MENTAL HEALTH BUT WE DON’T SEE IT IN COLORADO
By Andrew Romanoff
October 8, 2018
A teenager trapped by depression. A daughter addicted to heroin. A son lost to suicide.
More than a million Coloradans face a mental health or substance use disorder, but only half get the care they need.
The consequences can be catastrophic: crowded emergency rooms and prison cells, increased unemployment and homelessness, and one of the highest suicide rates in the nation.
This crisis is not simply statistical — it’s profoundly personal.
Dani was 16 when she was diagnosed with anxiety and ...
FOR MOTHER AND STAR ATHLETE DAUGHTER, MENTAL ILLNESS A CRUCIBLE OF PAIN
By: Rachel Riley
Oct. 6, 2018
Alone in a cell for 23 hours a day, gripped by delusions and reluctant to take the medications that would ease the symptoms of her psychosis, Jessica Muñoz-Ciro wanted to end the pain.
She leapt head-first from the top of a bunk bed at the El Paso County jail with enough force to crack her front teeth.
The fall didn’t kill 26-year-old Muñoz-Ciro, once a junior world racquetball champion who’d been arrested this year after she, in the midst of a manic episode, lashed out at law enforcement officers.
...
MILLIMAN RESEARCH REPORT: MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH DISPARITIES
According to the Milliman Research Report, Colorado’s insurers pay mental health professionals 30 percent less than they pay other providers.
Some mental health professionals tell us even when they try to join insurance networks, they’re turned away. As a result, Coloradans are going out of network seven times more often for mental health and substance use services than for physical care.
Read the full study here.
