Youth are grieving. With the death of relatives, friends — and above all, expectations — teens are feeling the loss brought by the pandemic. Without appropriate support systems, our youth are perpetually remaining in crisis. I have experienced first-hand the strain on our community’s mental health. Ranging from addiction to suicide attempts to eating disorders, […]
suicide prevention
Posted inBusiness, Health, News
10-digit dialing becomes mandatory across Colorado to make way for national suicide hotline
Practice makes perfect. Six months after state officials recommended callers in Colorado’s 719 and 970 area codes start getting in the habit of dialing 10 digits — area code plus phone number — for all local calls, the change became official on Sunday. The switch is to make way for 988, a three-digit dialing code […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: If you have kids and guns in your home, please talk to your children. I wish I had.
Our kids are returning to school in the midst of not only a lingering pandemic but also a mental health crisis and record gun sales, a potentially deadly mix that we as parents must acknowledge. This summer, Children’s Hospital Colorado issued its first state of emergency for pediatric mental health in its 113-year history, warning, […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News, Politics and Government
Youth mental health was front and center in Colorado’s legislative session. But the work is only a “down payment.”
Hospital emergency departments are flooded with children who’ve just attempted suicide. Kids in need of residential treatment for severe depression are sent out of state because Colorado’s beds are full. And suicide became the leading cause of death for youth in this state five years ago. So what are Colorado policymakers doing about it? The […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: A emergency pediatrician on why a law on safe storage of guns would save young lives
As a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado, I witness tragedy every day. Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of death in kids and are some of the most gut-wrenching cases we see in the ER. And when you combine a suicide attempt with a gun, the devastation is unbearable. Over half […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, Health, News
On Edge: After wanting to die, an Aurora teen is now learning to live
Navee Essien has grown up keenly aware of her gifts. More times than she can count, people have reminded the senior at Aurora’s Rangeview High how fortunate she is to have a close family and strong support system, academic and athletic talent, ease making friends, and the kind of smarts, beauty and confidence that make […]
Posted inHealth
On Edge: Colorado’s behavioral health chief opens up about his own severe depression
Some words fail us, and for Robert Werthwein, “depression” is one of them. The 41-year-old director of Colorado’s Behavioral Health Office prefers to say “everything turned to complete shit” when his identical twin, Ryan, died of a brain tumor a week before their 15th birthdays, and that his life pretty much sucked for the decade […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health, News
Youth suicides on the Eastern Plains spark political protest, “7 is too many” social media campaign
The latest deaths dropped on the tight-knit communities of the Eastern Plains like a heavy fog. Last month it was a senior at tiny Merino High, a girl who signed up for school plays and organized blood drives but was happiest in the rodeo arena. Then, just a few weeks later, in December, students in […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s splintered mental health system has had tragic failures. The state is taking the first step to fix it.
When Vickie Zacher found out her 11-year-old daughter was getting notes from kids at school suggesting that she kill herself, the Eagle County mom took her to a mental health counselor. A program through Zacher’s job paid for three, one-hour sessions. But the price for more sessions was $270 per hour, and Zacher couldn’t afford […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Wave of suicides in northwest Colorado part of “toxic stress” from coronavirus, experts say
Five people have taken their own lives in the span of about a month in the mostly rural counties of Moffat and Routt, alarming mental health workers who worry the deaths are part of the pandemic aftermath. The latest suicide in Steamboat Springs, that of a well-known and beloved firefighter EMT, was the fifth in […]