To Treat Mental Health Emergencies, Crisis Stabilization Unit Opens in Colo.
Dec. 02--Call it an emergency room for the mind -- a place aimed more at treating anxiety and depression than broken bones or heart attacks.
On Monday, AspenPointe formally opened its Crisis Stabilization Unit in Colorado Springs, one of several new services across the state aimed at improving mental and behavioral health care after the 2012 Aurora theater shootings.
TO GET HELP
AspenPointe's new Crisis Stabilization Unit is open 24/7 for walk-in visits at 115 S. Parkside Drive. The facility is southeast of East Pikes Peak Avenue and Printers Parkway.
To learn more about the unit, visit https://bit.ly/1FJSxZO.
To reach the state's mental health crisis hotline, call 844-493-8255 (TALK).
Open 24/7, the facility operates as a walk-in clinic open to anyone in mental or emotional distress, regardless of their ability to pay. The goal: Redirect people in a mental health crisis from costly hospital emergency rooms to specialized units with counselors who are better suited to treat patients' behavioral health needs.
To that end, many first responders, such as firefighters or police officers, can bypass hospital ERs in favor of the unit for people suffering from an emotional crisis. A new statewide hotline for mental health emergencies also can refer people to the unit for face-to-face help.
At an open house Monday, state officials and mental health advocates called the program a first-of-its-kind game-changer for emergency mental health care in southern Colorado.
"It's a brand-new day," said Lisa Clements, director of the Colorado Office of Behavioral Health.
The programs come after a contentious, litigation-filled battle to oversee the mental health initiatives. Ultimately, the state announced about $25.5 million in state-funded grant awards late last spring.
About $2 million of that total will be spent in El Paso, Teller and Park counties, a grant overseen by AspenPointe, a nonprofit specializing in behavioral health care.
Part of that money -- along with other funding streams, including Medicaid -- was used to create the nonprofit's Crisis Stabilization Unit at 115 S. Parkside Drive..
There, people arriving in distress would meet with paraprofessionals staffed by AspenPointe, who could offer coping tips, referrals to therapists or access to inpatient care.
It's all part of AspenPointe's Lighthouse facility, which includes several private rooms and a children's area surrounding a spacious common area peppered with couches and lounge seats. The other half of the Lighthouse facility hosts an inpatient acute care program, which existed before the state's mental health grant initiative.
As part of the unit's pilot phase, the Colorado Springs unit saw more than 200 people -- all of them walk-ins or referrals from the state's hotline, or from therapists, said Tamera Parkins, senior manager of data and projects for AspenPointe.
Of those people, 13 percent underwent more advanced treatment, such as inpatient care, while the rest were able to go home, often with future counseling sessions lined up.
Their needs varied, though most sought help for conditions such as anxiety, depression or schizophrenia, said Madeline Arroyo, an AspenPointe peer specialist.
"At the beginning, it's just a matter of connecting and saying 'What can I do for you?'"
said Jason DeaBueno, vice president, AspenPointe Health Services.
Along with creating the unit, AspenPointe officials have spent grant money on ways to get people there.
A therapist now rides with Colorado Springs firefighters during hours with high call volumes -- a group called a mobile crisis team. Those firefighters, who double as paramedics, can administer field tests to ensure a patient could safely forgo a hospital emergency room in favor of the Crisis Stabilization Unit.
That therapist's first call came minutes after going on shift Monday -- a report of a person threatening suicide, said Kelly Phillips-Henry, AspenPointe's chief operating officer.
Paramedics with the Ute Pass Regional Ambulance District also expect to transfer three to five people a week to the unit, said James McLaughlin, a paramedic with the district.
The district plans to use a van to take people to the unit -- one costing about $85 an hour to operate, rather than the $210 an hour it costs ambulances to take people to hospitals in Colorado Springs for care. "It means an opportunity to navigate patients to the most appropriate destination," McLaughlin said.
While people celebrated the unit's opening Monday, others sought help.
Amid a sea of suited nonprofit executives, paramedics and state officials, two young men sat in hoodies alone on a couch, waiting silently while their brother underwent an evaluation in a nearby room.
Their mother died in mid-November, and they recently held a service for her -- all of which proved to be too much for one brother.
Sitting silently, the two men, who asked not to be identified, wondered whether their visit would help.
At least, they said, they had a place to go.
"We all have our ups and downs, but just knowing there's someplace to go, that's great," one of the men said.
Copyright 2014 - The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
