In La Plata County, the number of young people dying by suicide has risen in recent years. Four people younger than 25 died by suicide in 2017 and five people under 25 died by suicide in 2018, according to data from the La Plata County Coroner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Suicide is \u201cthe most heartbreaking consequence of untreated mental illness,\u201d Romanoff said.<\/p>\n
Across the state since 2011, suicide has been the No. 1 most-reported concern to Safe2Tell, an anonymous hotline overseen by the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a crisis on our hands, with more adolescents and teens taking their own lives, battling depression and struggling with undiagnosed behavioral disorders,\u201d Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in a news release. \u201cTeachers see it, parents suspect it, friends and classmates know it. It isn\u2019t a lack of caring that\u2019s at issue; it is an unconscionable lack of resources devoted to the mental health of children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The attorney general\u2019s grant will support Partners for Children\u2019s Mental Health<\/a>, a group led by Children\u2019s Hospital that includes nonprofits, pediatric experts and government agencies.<\/p>\n The office was also responsible for funding Sources of Strength in La Plata County. It is a suicide-prevention program that started in Durango School District 9-R and the Bayfield School District this fall.<\/p>\n Coffman will leave office in January, but her office is hopeful the new attorney general will continue to be invested in suicide prevention, said Annie Skinner, a spokeswoman for the office.<\/p>\n Children\u2019s Hospital and Mental Health Colorado are also required to report their ongoing progress to the office, she said.<\/p>\n As part of the grant, Partners for Children\u2019s Mental Health is responsible for assessing mental health services in Colorado and determining how it can be improved in coming years.<\/p>\n The group will determine where behavioral health providers are operating statewide, and which prevention, screening and treatment programs they are using, said Michele Murray, spokeswoman for the Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado Foundation.<\/p>\n The group plans to map services, including inpatient, outpatient, day treatment, in-home, respite care, mental health and substance use treatment, she said.<\/p>\n The group also plans to pilot the services offered by a company called PracticeWise<\/a>. The services are designed to help behavioral health providers, particularly in rural areas, determine the most effective treatments to their patients, said Shannon Van Deman, executive director of Partners for Children\u2019s Mental Health.<\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible for behavioral health providers to be experts in every available therapy, so PracticeWise provides a database that allows providers to search for effective treatments based on the patient\u2019s symptoms and background. It is unknown if Partners for Children\u2019s Mental Health or the Office of Behavioral Health will contract directly with PracticeWise.<\/p>\n Partners for Children\u2019s Mental Health also plans to help train behavioral health providers in PracticeWise methods. The intent is to ensure that effective therapy methods are reaching patients sooner, she said.<\/p>\n Over the next three years, the group also plans to train thousands of educators in suicide screening and primary health care professionals in Zero Suicide practices.<\/p>\n Zero Suicide<\/a> is a national framework developed for behavioral health care providers that requires them to treat suicidal behavior directly rather than as a symptom of a condition.<\/p>\n The Zero Suicide curriculum for pediatric care is in development, Van Deman said.<\/p>\n The group will also be responsible for creating an assessment that licensed clinical social workers can use to determine what kind of help a family who has a child with a mental health condition will need. It will consider health care needs and social factors such as transportation, food and housing<\/p>\n The group is also interested in establishing care coordination for Medicaid patients with mental health. Care coordinators work with patients to ensure they are getting the care they need from different health care providers.<\/p>\n