Orchid Advocacy Salon des Refusés

Money, Children's Mental Health & Integrating the Police with Public Health

11/23/2021

$150 Million and more is the level of yearly additional money investment Colorado needs to make in Cognitive Disability Care, Treatment and Supported Employment for at least the next 10 years.

Further, as we're INTEGRATING Physical and Mental Health Care --- we need to be INTEGRATING LAW ENFORCEMENT and PUBLIC SAFETY with PUBLIC HEALTH --- which we are starting to do on a more and more systematic basis.

The call to "ABOLISH the POLICE" --- did get walked back or clarified to say --- we need to "RE-IMAGINE the POLICE."

Further, if we do "RE-IMAGINE the POLICE" --- we could give people in LAW ENFORCEMENT a much EXPANDED CAREER LADDER.

---News Channel 13 KRDO -- Colorado Springs

Childrens Hospital Colorado advocates for 150 million in funding to address mental health crisis impacting kids

Mental Health by the Numbers

October 07th, 2021

10/7/2021

Val's Take

Homelessness is NOT just a MUNICIPAL ISSUE.
For people who are HOMELESS as a result of PHYSICAL and/or COGNITIVE DISABILITY --- that is an Olmstead Issue --- that is a STATE ISSUE.

Channel 9 News
(Oct. 2021)

Arrest Made in Shooting of Man Going Through Trash

NBC News (July 2021)
Homelessness Surged in Denver --- So the City Built Campsites

Transcript of Gov. Polis' 2020 State of the State address

1/10/2020

Gov. Polis. Photo Credit: Denver7

Orchid's
Take

"EFFICIENCY" is one way to look @ the world -- and when it comes to Behavioral Health -- it is not exactly wrong.
So Voluntary SCREENING & DATA Collection regarding level of care needs could be considered "EFFICIENT," and essential for Medicaid Network Adequacy.
Colorado's great needs, like most States, are at the High End of the Continuum of Care -- both with respect to ACUITY and COST. That's a SCARY thing for politicians to address -- and it is why they generally don't. It is even scarier for Individuals and Families.
So when you start talking about "EFFICIENCY" does that mean one is going to continue to SIDESTEP one of the CRUCIAL Issues of our time, namely the care and treatment of people with the most significant and serious mental health needs? It sure sounds like it.
Further, ultimately we must have better treatments. That is a lot of what Federal CURES Legislation was about.
At the State Level, Colorado could push for the development of a Mental Health Center of Excellence at UC Health in line with UC Health's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Last year, I appointed a Behavioral Health Task Force to conduct a top-to-bottom review of Colorado’s behavioral health system and author a strategic plan for reform by June of this year.

Our state already spends $1.4 billion on mental and behavioral health we need to make our system more efficient so we can help more people get the care they need.

I want to thank CDHS Director Michele Barnes, and Representatives Lois Landgraf, Tracy KraftTharp, and Dafna Michaelson Jenet for their work on the Behavioral Health Task Force, and Senator Brittany Pettersen and Rep. Chris Kennedy and the members of the Opioid Study Committee for their work.

I look forward to collaborating with you all on desperately-needed reforms.

The Challenge of a Frustrated Society

Our take on Gov. Polis' concerning brief comments on behavioral health.

The comments are representative of a society that is spending a lot on behavioral health and not always getting a lot to show for it -- and by and large that is NOT because people aren't trying.

Further, we really haven't come to terms with essentially Long Term Rehabilitative & Custodial Care for serious cognitive disability.

That is not most people with mental illness -- but it is Thousands of people in Colorado.

We need holistic housing solutions

1/9/2020

Affordable housing, coupled with supportive behavioral and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, trauma-informed care, employment and education, food, child care and transportation are all foundational to public safety and security.

We need to build coalitions across sectors — coalitions that imagine a racially diverse Colorado Springs that provides economic opportunity and inclusive housing solutions to its citizens.

Programs like Housing First, which provide housing to people experiencing homelessness so they are better equipped to handle mental health and substance abuse issues, are working throughout the world.

Bloomberg even reported in 2019 that homelessness in Finland has fallen 40 percent over the last decade, thanks to this model.

All things are possible. Do we have the will?

DiverseCity Columnist Patience Kabassa

Money, Children's Mental Health & Integrating the Police with Public Health

October 07th, 2021

Transcript of Gov. Polis' 2020 State of the State address

We need holistic housing solutions

Colorado Take

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