Colorado Crisis Services is celebrating two years of providing crisis response across the state of Colorado.
After the Aurora theater tragedy, the state of Colorado mandated the creation of a comprehensive network of services for individuals experiencing a behavioral health or substance use crisis. In response, Northeast Behavioral Health, which represents North Range Behavioral Health (Weld County), SummitStone Health Partners (Larimer County) and Centennial Mental Health (10 counties in Northeastern Colorado), launched Crisis Support Services across the northeast region on December 1, 2014.
The primary goal of these services is to assist anyone in a crisis (as he or she defines it) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, regardless of age, income, or insurance status. A statewide hotline, 844.493.TALK (8255), is staffed with professionals and experienced peers who can provide immediate support and referrals to local services across the state. Recently, text support has been added to the state services. Anyone can text the word TALK to 38255 anytime, from anywhere in Colorado about any type of crisis. In Weld County, North Range Behavioral Health is the local provider of Colorado Crisis Services. People in crisis in Weld County can call our local line, 970.347.2120, as well as come into our walk-in center, located at 928 12th Street in Greeley. Mobile crisis units travel across our region to reach people in crisis and transport them to services. Our network provides the level of care most appropriate to the person experiencing the crisis, as we know that people heal most quickly when cared for in the least-restrictive environment possible-- but also offers necessary triage and support for critical situations.
Not much of this has changed since we first opened our walk-in center, but what we can now say definitively is that we are filling a large gap for crisis intervention in Weld County. Since we opened our facility, we’ve had more than 3,200 individuals walk in to our facility (928 12th Street in Greeley) for crisis intervention, over 800 mobile responses, and more than 600 individuals admitted to our short term respite facility to help them work through and overcome the crisis that brought them in. We have seen a reduction in emergency room visits, a high customer satisfaction rate, improved efficiencies in the system, and an ability to provide the right level of care at the right time.
