FUNDING

“As a society, we will not be judged by the number of lanes on our highways or how tall our buildings are,” Crow said. “As a society, we will ultimately be judged on how we treat each other and how we come to aid and help those who need a hand. Because there’s no person in this room who hasn’t needed help at some point in their life.”

Walk-in crisis center, youth unit planned e demand for mental and behavioral health services for children and adolescents exceeds the capacity for services around Colorado, including in Douglas County, Ciancone said.

With the new federal funding — and dollars from the federal American Rescue Plan Act — new programs are unfolding in Douglas County, including the following:

• A walk-in crisis center that will serve as an alternative to the emergency room for all ages. e facility will provide 24/7/365 walk-in crisis support, counseling, deescalation, and information and referrals for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use disorder crisis, according to a county news release.

• A child and adolescent crisis stabilization unit that will o er 16 beds to serve youth ages 8 to 18 experiencing a mental health crisis.

• A veterans mental health clinician that will provide support for veterans who experience nancial and geographic barriers to accessing care.

• A suicide prevention grant program that will support “data-driven countywide work” speci cally focused on middle-aged men, prenatal and postnatal women and families, older adults, and youth ages 14 to 24.

Each member of the U.S. House of Representatives was able to submit up to 15 community project funding requests to bene t state or local government grantees or eligible nonpro ts. e House Appropriations Committee then considered requests when writing the annual federal spending bill.

Douglas County’s check represents one of the buckets of funding Crow requested for his area.

Separately, Douglas County commissioners dedicated $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to grants for local organizations’ work on suicide prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery, the county said in a January news release.

( e American Rescue Plan Act is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law in March 2021 with a goal to support the economic and public health recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.)

Programs take shape e county is partnering with its community mental health organization, AllHealth Network, to open the all-ages walk-in center and the child and adolescent crisis stabilization unit, which Ciancone called a “ rst-of-its-kind facility in Douglas County.”

Douglas County and its partners aim to support people before and after they use the walk-in center, making sure they get the services they need closer to home, Ciancone said. e county has launched its veterans mental health program with a clinician, she added. e county’s community response team — a coresponder program that pairs law enforcement o cers with mental health professionals to help adults and youth experiencing a mental health crisis avoid the emergency room or jail — is also expanding, Ciancone said. e county has six community response teams, according to a March news release, and it may have nine teams by summer or fall.

Ciancone also spoke to the timeline for new resources unfolding, noting AllHealth Network recently nalized plans with a developer for the walk-in center and the crisis stabilization unit. O cials estimate around a year to a year and a half until opening.

Regarding the suicide prevention grant, “we have received applications, there’s a committee reviewing and we should be making awards in April,” Ciancone said.

County initiative approaches a decade

Crow thanked the county and its partners for their work to bolster mental health in the area.

“I cannot thank you enough for working day in and day out, putting your heart and your soul on the line to frankly help save our kids’ lives,” Crow said.

For nearly a decade, the county has run an e ort to help address mental health in the community.

With support from the Douglas County commissioners, and in response to several tragic mental health-related incidents, the Douglas County Mental Health Initiative was established in 2014 to “unite community partners, address unmet mental health needs, connect people to mental health services and