HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — If there is anything the last couple of years have proven, it’s how much of a need there is for mental health resources in communities across Colorado.
The coronavirus pandemic, paired with a tough political environment and economic uncertainty, has taken a toll on many families.
While lawmakers have allocated more resources to try to address the state’s growing mental health needs, individual counties are also doing what they can to help.
In Douglas County, the sheriff’s office has expanded its community response team (CRT) to six and now has two teams dedicated to going into schools to work with students who are experiencing mental health issues.
“We get involved. We want to call the parents, make sure they know — make sure the parents know — that there are resources for them,” said Deputy Zachary Zepeski with Doulgas County’s CRT.
The sheriff’s office has also established a Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Response Team (HEART) consisting of three navigators who work with law enforcement to respond to make contact with people experiencing homelessness in the community and try to connect them with community services.
The county has come under fire this year for a Jail-based Reintegration Program, which helps recently released homeless inmates find shelters and resources. Sometimes, those inmates are transported to other cities like Aurora.
It’s something Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said he wants the county to stop doing because it could set a bad precedent and encourages one jurisdiction to export its homeless to others.
For CRT teams, though, the goal is to work with people on a voluntary basis to connect them with mental health resources that work with their insurance policy.
Zepeski has been partnered with clinician Bob Froug for about three months. Each morning, the pair gets into an unmarked SUV, goes through a list of referral and then makes house calls to people with mental health needs.
“Because of the stigma that's associated with mental health, we tend to see a lot of untreated mental health conditions,” said Froug.
Froug has performed crisis work for about four years and worked as a mental health professional for the past 20.
He says showing up in an unmarked car without the lights and sirens and just talking to people can immediately help make them feel comfortable enough to open up about their problems.
Then, the pair will work with the resident to try to figure out what resources they need and who to connect them with.
“We can sit and talk as long as they need,” Zepeski said.
On this particular Monday, the pair checks their list of calls and figures out which one they think they need to respond to first.
Froug says the most critical calls come first, but if someone was recently released from a mental health hold, the pair tries to give them a couple of days to get settled before making contact with them so they won’t feel overwhelmed.
The first stop of the day is to a man’s house in Douglas County to check in on him but there is no answer, so they leave a note and move on to the next house.
The CRT’s attempt to make contact with each person three times before closing out their case.
Their third stop of the day is a welfare check. A young woman answers her apartment door in Lone Tree and immediately Zepeski tells her she’s not in trouble and they are here to help.
First, they begin to assess how serious the woman’s situation is, asking if she wants to hurt herself or others and whether she has access to any weapons. After that, they start asking about her individual circumstance to understand the concern and which resources would be best suited for her.
In the end, they give her their information, take hers and tell her a resource specialist will be contacting her later that afternoon.
“She is going to end up getting the help that she needs, and to be completely honest, both Bob and I are very concerned about her,” Zepeski said.
The pair says it’s never their intention to need to take someone into a mental health facility on an involuntary hold or to force them into treatment. However, they know how confusing the mental health system in the state can be.
“It is really hard to navigate. It is it is a lot, and it can be almost overwhelming,” Zepeski said. “The fact of the matter is most of the time that the mental health system is broken, but teams like mine, teams with mental health facilities that do kind of what we do and even the hospital staff, all these people are making so many changes.”
Around the holidays, the calls for mental health services from CRT’s increase significantly. This pair has responded to as many as 21 calls in a single day in the past, even being on three at once last week alone.
“Every holiday, especially the Thanksgiving to New Years’ time, we see an exponential increase in calls for service,” Froug said.
However, there are good moments, like the time Zepeski was able to talk a kid who was suicidal down from a bridge and get him help. He says after spending 20 minutes with the teen talking to him and relating to him on a human level, the teen gave Zepeski a big hug and is now off at college and doing well.
Last week, the pair also spent hours driving around the community looking for a suicidal man and when they finally found him they were able to get him seen by a mental health expert that day.
“That opportunity, that safe place for people to talk. It's amazing. It's amazing, the outcome; people feel so much better because they feel they've been heard,” Froug said.
Each day, there is a new list of calls to respond to because the mental health needs of the community never go away. This pair just hopes that one by one they are able to connect people with the resources they need to make a dent in the mental health crisis in the state.
If there is anything the last couple of years have proven, it’s how much of a need there is for mental health resources in communities across Colorado.
Each day, there is a new list of calls to respond to because the mental health needs of the community never go away. This pair just hopes that one by one they are able to connect people with the resources they need to make a dent in the mental health crisis in the state.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you can dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24/7, visit Colorado Crisis Services, or click here for a list of resources in Colorado.