RAVI’S PROVIDER UPDATES
Dear Summit County Mental Health Professionals,
We hope this message finds you doing well. Enclosed please find a slew of updates for your perusal. Please contact ravi@buildinghopesummit.org with any questions.
Building Hope News
Scholarship Program Communication
In case you missed our communication a few weeks ago about an update to our scholarship program, please read about it here.
Monthly Provider and Navigation Meeting Merged
Building Hope is merging our larger, agency/organizational, mental health navigation meeting with our smaller monthly therapist/provider meeting. This is so that we can come together at all levels and share updates and collaborate in a single place.
Each month will alternate between presentations from the community and individual updates. This month (November) we’re doing presentations. December will be an update centric meeting.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, 11/15, and we’ll have presenters from Peak Health Alliance + Denver Health, and Vail Health Behavioral Health will also be in attendance to talk about their services and answer any questions are community has for our new CMHC.
If you have not been included on the calendar invite, please email ravi@buildinghopesummit.org.
Immediate Access Program News
Mid 2021, Building Hope worked with several partner agencies and private providers to create the Immediate Access Program. This program was originally developed to respond to the need for quicker access to therapy appointments and fill a gap that was evident in the community due to a lack of service provision by the then functioning CMHC. Building Hope is excited that now in 2023, Vail Health Behavioral Health (VHBH) has joined the Summit County community as the Community Mental Health Center, increasing access to care, wrap-around services of case management, peer support, psychiatric services and more. Over the next several months, Building Hope will be working with VHBH and Immediate Access Program partners to transition the clients in need of immediate access slots to our new CMHC, Vail Health Behavioral Health. The immediate access program was originally founded as a gap service and funded through Strong Future funding. Now that Summit County has a present CMHC that is meant to provide these services, funded through state funds and reimbursable means, our community can rely on VHBH to care for these needs and allow the community Strong Future funds to be better utilized in other community programs.
Additionally, a new mobile crisis provider will be entering the Summit County mental health landscape in early 2024, further enhancing our community crisis response and wrap around support for our community members. Building Hope will be working with current immediate access providers to decrease the slots available through the shared calendar and increase the referrals being sent to VHBH for these needs. It is with great success that this program has been meeting the needs of the community and we are so thankful that the community can begin to phase out the Building Hope immediate access program by mid-2024.
Here is the referral process VHBH would like for Summit County providers to follow at this time:
-Outpatient therapy and psychiatry referrals can get emailed directly to Paige Braxton, Director of Outpatient Services directly: paige.braxton@
-Clients in crisis can get referred directly to Paige via email for a risk assessment and/or immediate access therapy with “immediate access needed” or “crisis client” in the subject line (or some other indication that this is a high acuity/time sensitive referral)
This program is an example of the incredible work that Summit County partners do together- taking a need, assessing the options available, working collaboratively, and solving a problem for our community members. We, at Building Hope, feel truly grateful for all of you who have stepped up in big ways for your community through the development and function of this program. We understand and acknowledge that change is challenging and we do not suspect a totally flaw-free transition of this program, yet we know that this community can work together to support new partners and ensure Summit County is taken care of.
Thank you for all of your work and continued partnership.
Upcoming FREE Provider Workshops
Art as Therapy Workshop: Building Hope, in conjunction with CSU-Extension, invites local providers to participate in this FREE workshop to learn more about art therapy interventions and how they can use art in a therapeutic way with their clients. December 12th, 6:30-9:30pm
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Training (PMAD 101): Learn to recognize and address PMADS, the most common obstetric complication at our FREE upcoming Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Training. Presented by the Parent and Family Wellness Center and Building Hope Summit County. Wednesday, January 10th, 12pm-1:30pm.
Holiday Survival Guide – requesting submissions by 11/14
According to the American Psychological Association, 38% of people surveyed said their stress increased during the holiday season, which can lead to physical illness, depression, anxiety, and substance misuse. The reasons given include financial pressure with gift-giving, interpersonal conflict at family gatherings, working to maintain sobriety and/or recovery during the holidays, observing holidays after having lost a loved one, and more.
NAMI has found that 64% of individuals living with a mental illness felt that their conditions worsened around the holidays.
Building Hope would like to put out a “Holiday Survival Guide” to acknowledge that the holiday season is not always joyous for everyone. We would like this guide to include information on coping with grief & loss, triggers, stress, etc. through the holidays and hope our local providers can write short, informational pieces on “how to survive the holidays” to be included in this guide.
If you would like to help our community this holiday season by writing an informational “holiday survival how-to”, please go to this form. Please reach out to alyse@buildinghopesummit.org if you have questions or want any assistance on your submission for this guide.
We hope to see you at our next provider mixer on December 7th!
Community Partner News
Some New Local Support Group Offerings
Suicide Loss Survivor Support Group: Building Hope is looking for providers who may be interested in facilitating this 6-8 week group for our community. If you are interested in being a facilitator for this group, please reach out to alyse@buildinghopesummit.org
Is it Anxiety or is it OCD Group: Grit therapist, Carly Schaller, is putting on a 6-week virtual group exploring the relationship between anxiety and OCD and introducing evidenced-based treatment approaches to help folks conquer their fears and thrive. Contact carly@grittherapy.com for more information.
Living Out Loud Group (L.O.L.): Mile High Behavioral Health is accepting referrals for their high-risk teen experiential group. Clients will learn skills through wilderness adventures, yoga and movement, art, music, and team building. Contact cmccoy@mhbhc.org for more information or to refer you clients.
Front Range Clinic Offering Psychiatry Appointments!
FRC is now offering psychiatric services to patients in Summit County. FRC can treat anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar, schizophrenia, OCD, and more. No specific diagnoses are restricted, but they are not a crisis center and should not be used as such. FRC does not prescribe ANY controlled substances through their psych clinic – this includes benzodiazepines and stimulants. Dual-diagnosis is a great fit for FRC’s psych services. Patients are typically seen virtually every 2-4 weeks and will need to be established in the MAT clinic prior, but do not necessarily need to be on any MAT medications. *FRC can see folks who do not have a SUD but all patients will be seen by an SUD/MAT provider first, so please prepare clients you are referring to FRC that this is their process*
Mental Health First Aid Class
Darla Whinston is hosting a FREE in-person adult MHFA class on the following dates: November 14 and 15 from 9:30am-2:30pm. Please register here or email Darla for more information: mtndarla@aol.com
Save the Date – Charlie’s Walk and Mental Health Fair
NAMI HCC and the Town of Silverthorne are putting an event on to honor Charlie Foster on January 7th, 2024 from 1pm-4:30pm. If your agency is interested in being a part of the mental health fair during this event, please contact Darla Whinston at mtndarla@aol.com for more information.
Youth & Family Services Programs
Strengthening Families Outreach Program—free home visitation program for families with children 0-17 years old who need support
The Drop Teen Center—open Monday-Thursday for youth 6th-12th grade
Playgroup—free drop-in playgroup for parents/caregivers of children 0-3 years, Monday mornings at The Drop Teen Center
Mountain Mentors—Y&FS is actively recruiting for mentors for their Mountain Mentors program
FIRC Walk-in Enrollment Days
A Message from FIRC re: MH Navigation Program
Hello FIRC Community Partners,
We wanted to share with you that the Mental Health Navigation Program has come to an end here at the FIRC. For many years we have been filling a need in the community by offering Mental Health Navigation as a stopgap, since professional Mental Health resources for Spanish and English-speaking clients were very hard to come by. Thanks to vision of County Government and Building Hope, these much-needed services are now being offered in our community through Strong Futures funding and more services. Thus, FIRC has seen a significant decrease over the last year in the need for Navigation services overall and we have come to the decision that our services are duplicating what is being offered in the community, and so, are no longer needed.
Conversations at the county level were held to determine what was best for the continuity of mental health care in in the community, but most importantly, to ensure clients had resources to go to, avoiding foreseeable gaps. FIRC will keep our website self-referrals to mental health navigation active until the end of December. Those referrals will be routed directly to Building Hope. Starting January 2024 our website will still provide mental health resources for our community, but in the form of links and phone numbers to Building Hope, Vail Health Behavioral Health, and Mile High Behavioral Health. Additionally, it is important to note that our Peer Programs are still being offered. Both ALMA and ACCION provide mental health support for our Latinx community in the form of peer groups and one-on-one sessions with Compañeras/os.
We want to thank you, our community partners, for the support and referrals to our Mental Health Navigation program over the years! It has been a pleasure working with you all, and we hope to continue those relationships but in different contexts and capacities.
Please share this message to whomever this information might be relevant, and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!
Best,
Hannah Gall, MBA (she/her/hers)
Community Health Program Manager
Office: 970-313-4226 | Mobile: 720-988-6728
Office Hours: Mon-Thur 9am-5pm
www.summitfirc.org | hannahg@
Strong Families. Strong Community.
Research opportunity for Hispanic/LatinX clients
A University of Denver research team is currently conducting a study (“Impact of COVID-19 on Latinx Immigrants in Colorado”) to understand the health behaviors and health of Latinx in Colorado. The intent behind this effort is to eventually develop programming that more adequately serves community needs. For this reason, they strongly want rural communities represented!
Specifically, their study aims to assess (a) disparities in perceived stress, anxiety, and depression between US-born and immigrant Latinx in CO; (b) disparities in engagement in health promoting behaviors (namely, sleep, physical activity, and healthy eating) between US-born and immigrant Latinx in CO; and (c) the role of SDOH as predictors of health and engagement in health promoting behaviors in immigrant and US-born Latinx in CO. Their study is entirely online. Participants are asked to complete a 30-minute survey and receive a $20 gift card for their participation.
Please share this research opportunity with your clients and encourage them to participate!
Last Word!
Please join our Summit County Provider Facebook page and please take our provider survey so we can continue to support our provider community.
We hope to see you at one of our community events.
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*Building Hope Summit County*
*PO Box 1771, Frisco, CO 80443*
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