Legislation that follows a 2021 mental health emergency declaration by Children’s Hospital could lead to more residential treatment beds so kids can leave the hospital
residential treatment centers
Posted inOpinion Columns
Opinion: Boulder has good reason to keep mum about the location of a planned group home
The NIMBYs will come out in force, despite their groundless fears about the home’s menace to property values and children.
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
$76 million could fix Colorado’s youth mental health system, study finds as kids are sent out of state for care
The operators of Colorado’s youth residential treatment centers, where children with the most acute mental health struggles go to recover, have warned for years that the system could fall apart without more funding. There are signs it’s happening now. Suicidal kids are waiting weeks, sometimes months, in hospital emergency rooms for a bed at a […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
Colorado shuts down youth center in Watkins after allegations of drugs, fights and improper restraints of kids
State officials moved to shut down a residential treatment center for troubled kids and teens Thursday, arriving on campus after a high school graduation ceremony and moving children to other placements. Ridge View Youth Services Center, where kids attend an on-campus charter school and receive intense treatment for behavioral health, was informed that its contract […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Turning the child welfare system upside down in Colorado isn’t easy, or cheap
Colorado’s child protection system is in the midst of a shakeup as the state tries to drastically reduce the number of kids sent to institutions and group homes and instead place them with foster families or keep them home. The changes are required by federal law and will cost Colorado $11.5 million this year alone […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
A Pueblo center for troubled kids had 243 abuse allegations in the year before it closed
A center for kids with severe behavioral and psychiatric problems was ordered to close its doors in 2017 — but not until 243 reports of suspected abuse and neglect were filed in the span of a year, according to an investigation released Tuesday by the state’s child protection ombudsman. The delay allowed children and teens […]