{"id":2445926,"date":"2019-07-02T07:54:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T13:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=308775"},"modified":"2019-07-02T07:54:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T13:54:35","slug":"hope-center-to-provide-mobile-crisis-response-in-garfield-eagle-counties-under-states-new-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/hope-center-to-provide-mobile-crisis-response-in-garfield-eagle-counties-under-states-new-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Center to provide mobile crisis response in Garfield, Eagle counties under state\u2019s new system"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Under Colorado\u2019s new behavioral health crisis system, the Hope Center will serve as the primary provider of mobile crisis response in Eagle and Garfield counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can call day or night in any kind of crisis to figure out what is in the community that we can connect you with,\u201d Hope Center Executive Director Michelle Muething said of the nonprofit that formed in 2010 and has offices in both the Roaring Fork and Eagle River valleys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a new operation for the Hope Center,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have been doing this for nine years, and Garfield County is our backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2014, Mind Springs Health had held the state contract to provide mobile and walk-in crisis response across the 10-county region it served. However, as of Monday<\/a> Rocky Mountain Health Plans took over and has since contracted with organizations like the Hope Center to offer crisis services.<\/p>\n

To assist with the transition, Mind Springs will still perform crisis response over the next 60 days, in addition to its local and regional clinical and hospital services.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Mind Springs crisis line is going to continue for those 60 days,\u201d Mind Springs Health Program Director Hans Lutgring said. \u201cI think that the important message that we get out there now is that there is no change in how people would reach our crisis services for (two months).\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the contract awarded to Rocky Mountain Health Plans will not affect the vast majority of Mind Springs Health\u2019s ongoing services, Lutgring explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has just been a lot of confusion,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom our perspective, there is going to be relatively little change in the day-to-day of the outpatient services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mind Springs Health CEO Sharon Raggio stated in a recent press release, \u201cWe look forward to continuing our preventative work to lessen mental health crises, and assisting and coordinating with responders in the community when crises do arise to ensure our fellow Coloradoans receive the ongoing services they need to heal and recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said that it was unfortunate that Mind Springs Health lost the contract. But he was confident in the Hope Center\u2019s ability to provide crisis services throughout Garfield County.<\/p>\n

However, with its two physical locations being in Basalt and Eagle, Vallario said he also hopes to provide the nonprofit with additional space out of the Garfield County Sheriff\u2019s Annex in Rifle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem has always been, we are asking cops to become behavioral crisis workers when that\u2019s not what we are trained to do,\u201d Vallario said, stressing the critical need for services like those offered by the Hope Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything we can do to help foster that crisis intervention we are all for it,\u201d Vallario said.<\/p>\n

Muething said that the Hope Center wanted to ensure that people experiencing a crisis received meaningful help, as opposed to automatically going to the emergency room. She described the Hope Center as a community resource connector.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the shift is \u2014 across the state \u2014 they are trying to get people to call Colorado Crisis Services to be able to talk to someone, versus calling 911,\u201d Muething said of Colorado Crisis Services\u2019 line (1-844-493-8255), which connects someone experiencing a crisis with a trained crisis counselor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur whole goal is to prevent people from being in the emergency room,\u201d Muething said.<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under Colorado\u2019s new behavioral health crisis system, the Hope Center will serve as the primary provider of mobile crisis response in Eagle and Garfield counties. \u201cYou can call day or night in any kind of crisis to figure out what is in the community that we can connect you with,\u201d Hope Center Executive Director Michelle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 00:09:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}