On the third Tuesday of each month, Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village hosts a meeting that no one wants to attend.<\/p>\n
I visited the church in October, shortly after dusk. A sign pointed me to a meeting room in the back of the building, at the end of a dark hallway.<\/p>\n
Inside the room, two dozen women and men sat quietly around a conference table. They each introduced themselves and then shared the names of their children \u2014 a son or a daughter who had died by suicide.<\/p>\n
When my turn came, I talked about my cousin Melissa, who was like a sister to me. She killed herself on New Year’s Day in 2015, at the age of 35.<\/p>\n
Huddled there in a circle of grief, I knew we were not alone. Colorado lost 81 children and 1,094 adults to suicide last year.<\/p>\n
My family and I will be tortured for the rest of our lives by our failure to prevent Melissa’s death. There’s nothing I could tell her parents, or those in the church that night, to ease their pain.<\/p>\n
But the parents at Bethany Lutheran weren’t looking to me for solace. They just wanted to know how they could make a difference \u2014 how they could spare other families the anguish they’ve suffered.<\/p>\n
Colorado’s next legislative session, which begins Friday, can offer some answers. At Mental Health Colorado, we’re bringing a broad range of proposals to state lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Among other requests, we’re asking the General Assembly and the governor to:<\/p>\n
Fund the Zero Suicide framework, training health care, education and law enforcement personnel to spot the early warning signs of suicidal ideation.<\/p>\n
Strengthen the enforcement of mental health parity laws, requiring public and private insurers to provide sufficient coverage for the treatment of mental-health and substance-use disorders.<\/p>\n
Create a statewide bed tracking system, enabling Coloradans to find the nearest available psychiatric or substance-use facility.<\/p>\n
Adopt a “red flag” law, allowing judges in certain circumstances to order the temporary removal of weapons from individuals deemed a significant danger to themselves or others.<\/p>\n
Expand the School Health Professional Grant Program, placing nurses, counselors, social workers, and psychologists in more schools.<\/p>\n
Boost funding for school-based health centers, particularly in rural Colorado.<\/p>\n
Increase access to housing and supportive services for individuals with serious mental-health or substance-use disorders.<\/p>\n
It’s an ambitious agenda. And with only 120 days until legislators adjourn, we don’t have much time to enact it.<\/p>\n
But for thousands of families like mine, help can’t come soon enough.<\/p>\n
Andrew Romanoff is the president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado (www.mentalhealthcolorado.org), the state’s leading advocate for the prevention and treatment of mental health and substance-use disorders. Romanoff served as speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.<\/p>\n