By Lacey Berumen As a special committee of Congress takes on the important mission of reducing our countrys federal deficit, we must not lose sight of the need to protect some of our nations most vulnerable citizens those suffering from mental illness. Congress understandably will have to make some tough choices, but it also must set priorities. On the heels of Mental Illness Awareness Week, observed earlier this month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Colorado is imploring Congress to oppose cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that could imperil the estimated 195,000 Coloradans living with mental illness. This special…
Category: Mental Health - Part 4
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon WESTMINSTER Exam room No. 1 at Westminster Medical Clinic is a striking departure from the classic, sterile rooms in a typical doctors office. The walls are pale lavender. Soft light from a lamp washes over a plush couch and easy chair. Candles and a CD player sit on a bookshelf next to wellness and self-help books along with the bible of the American Psychiatric Association, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Yet, this oasis is a place within the walls of a busy primary care practice where doctors can lead a patient, giving them…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Colorados new health exchange board meets for the first time next week and must immediately get to work. This is a roll-up-your-sleeves, we-need-your-expertise kind of board, said Joan Henneberry, director of the Colorado health insurance exchange at the Colorado Health Institute. For the first three to four months, the board is going to be very busy. This board is building something from scratch. Heres what is on deck for the new board and a summary of priorities for board members who returned calls to Solutions. Among the first agenda items: Evaluating and interpreting the regulations that…
By Mikaila Altenbern Katheryn Liermann decided that she needed help. She wanted to get better. The problem? As she began her search for treatment facilities, she found that her body weight was too low for her to be accepted. In other words, she was too sick to be treated. It felt like everyone had given up on me. It was really disheartening because I had already given up, says Liermann about her search for a clinic with the medical expertise to help her overcome her 12-year struggle with anorexia nervosa. Luckily for Liermann she found the A.C.U.T.E. center at Denver…
By Mikaila Altenbern In 1975, Dr. Craig Johnson, then a medical student at the University of Minnesota, first encountered anorexia nervosa. Johnson found the illness intriguing and realized that there were very few people paying attention to it. It was rare to come across an anorexia patient, said Johnson, who added, It is easy to become an expert in a field where there arent a lot of cases. Today Johnson is one of many experts in eating disorder recovery and prevention working in Denver. Johnson is the chief clinical officer at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. Specialists in the…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon FORT LUPTON – A clinic with roots caring for migrant farm workers in an old onion shed offers one of the most sophisticated models in Colorado for integrating mental health with primary care. “If you come to my health center, your chances of also seeing a mental health counselor are great,” said Dr. Tillman Farley, medical services director for Salud Family Health Centers. “Wall Street bankers don’t get the care that we give our patients.” The mental health counselors don’t wait for a doctor or other health provider to invite them into a patient’s room. They see all…
By Donald J. Mares It is no secret that there is a strong connection between the mind and body. Religious leaders, philosophers, doctors and many others have discussed the mind/body connection for centuries. Yet the treatment of mental and physical health has been compartmentalized in modern Western medicine. In the United States, there are two systems of care: the behavioral health system and the physical health system. These systems are perpetuated through insurance reimbursements, through laws, medical education and many other cultural and social institutions. The distinction between mental and physical health is both a product and promoter of the…
The emotional health of college freshmen who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago. Read the New York Times report.
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The iconic Western cowboy has long enchanted artists and pioneers alike. Who could be more carefree than a man alone on his horse, herding cattle as jagged peaks tower overhead? The romance with the Rocky Mountain West is fundamental to our American DNA. Yet, there is a hidden peril for these mavericks and stoic ranchers, as poisonous as cigarettes were to the rugged Marlboro man. Depression and suicide rates are alarmingly high among ranchers and rural residents in Colorado. Throughout the state, Colorado has set an unfortunate record with the highest number of suicides ever recorded…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon For John Fielder, Colorados mountains are his medicine and his muse. Craggy high-altitude peaks, bathed in the glow of a new days light, have fed the soul of Colorados most famous nature photographer for nearly four decades. Fielder has captured achingly beautifully images and fought to save sacred lands, including his most recent preservation project: Ranches of Colorado. Yet, the mountains were also the setting for the most tragic moment of Fielders life. On March 21, 2006, Fielders oldest child and only son, John J.T. Fielder III, killed himself on a 13,000-foot ridge above Butler Gulch…