Tag: mental health crisis

It can take up to two years for women who actively use drugs or alcohol while pregnant to prove they’re safe, stable and fit to regain custody of their babies after a child-welfare agency steps in following the birth. But a new project that began in 2019 and is opening in a few weeks will…

Politics aside, juveniles and adults in El Paso County are dying from self-inflicted gunshot wounds far more than any other means of suicide. This week’s “Safe Homes, Safer Families” workshops, a product of two Colorado College students and local suicide prevention groups, deliver the message that by storing guns more safely, more lives can be…

At least one military veteran or active-duty service member died by suicide every week in El Paso County last year, according to the coroner’s 2021 investigative death report released Tuesday. “The number is upsetting,” said Damian McCabe, director of behavioral health-military affairs for UCHealth, which operates three hospitals and numerous clinics in Colorado Springs. Of…

A year after Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a state of emergency for pediatric mental health on May 25, 2021, officials say the situation has worsened, as record demand for treatment continues to overwhelm capacity. “The number of children who are coming to us for emergency department care who are in crisis is higher, and our…

A troubled Western Slope mental health care center falsified assessments of its patients’ conditions for at least nine years in an effort to make its treatment programs seem more effective and secure funding from the state, whistleblowers say. The state overlooked what former workers describe as a long practice by the Grand Junction-based Mind Springs…

Californians are fed up. A quarter of the country’s homeless population — about 160,000 people — lives in California, and angry voters have had enough. A friend of mine who reports in California put it this way in a recent story: “Here, in the political capital of Blue State America, even the homeless cannot believe…

Colorado’s anonymous safety tip line for students, Safe2Tell, received more than 1,800 reports in February, up 15% from the previous month, according to a new report.  The increase comes after January saw a 35% decrease in the number of calls reported compared to December. To date, there have been 12,971 reports made since Aug. 1,…

The advice from the child psychologists varied in detail but had a consistent message: Check in on your kids. They repeated it over and over Wednesday night, during a forum their employer, Children’s Hospital Colorado, hosted to discuss youth mental health in the state. In May, the hospital system declared the situation an emergency, and…