The Gunnison Valley Health Foundation secures funding for several behavioral
health initiatives in our healthcare system. The intended outcomes are to...
Increase access to mental and behavioral healthcare
Reduce mental and behavioral health related hospitalizations
Provide professional care and support for recovery from mental and behavioral
health challenges
Gunnison Valley Health is taking an active role in providing the leadership
necessary to address these challenges and is taking a purposeful approach
toward a more integrated service model that promises to provide meaningful
results. GVH requests support from Gunnison County for start-up costs
associated with the new GVH Behavioral Health Department.
The GVH Behavioral Health Department includes the following services:
Four mobile crisis clinicians have been hired to provide 24/7 coverage
for immediate response in Gunnison and Hinsdale Counties. Response time
in the City of Gunnison is 15 minutes on scene and 40 minutes in the Town
of Crested Butte. We are the leading provider in the state of Colorado
for response time to scene.
Three peer support specialists are available to provide services valley
wide including at Western Colorado University. This program has been in
place for four years and peers are individuals with lived experience involving
mental health and substance abuse challenges who offer immediate support
and services 24/7 in the Emergency Room and the community.
Two outpatient clinicians provide therapy sessions, evaluations and consultation
to medical staff at various locations within the health system including
the outpatient family medicine clinic and a new clinic in Crested Butte.
GVH provides jail-based services to inmates at the Gunnison County Jail
and services include 40 hours/week of therapist and Psychiatric Nurse
Practitioner time with inmates for individual sessions, group counseling,
medication management and evaluations as needed.
Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) services are provided two days/week
through a partnership with the Front Range Clinic. This is a specialty
clinic designed to treat substance abuse disorder through alternatives
treatments. Services are being expanded to Crested Butte in December.
M1 hold evaluations are currently conducted though contracts with Health
One and the Center for Mental Health via telehealth from the Emergency
Department.
An agreement with the Gunnison Watershed School District provides school-based
therapy services at the elementary school in Gunnison and the high school
in Crested Butte. New funding has been acquired to provide services at
the Crested Butte elementary, Gunnison Middle School and Gunnison High
school in 2023.
An agreement with Western Colorado University provides a school-based therapy
clinic on campus with two full time therapists and 2 interns for students
and faculty in need of mental health services.
Overall, the behavioral health department operates as one team to provide
integrated care within all services provided through the health system
while providing a seamless transition of care at point of entry.
For more information on the Gunnison Valley Health Behavioral Health Department,
click here.
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