Douglas County Community Response Team works to connect people with mental health resources

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. – If there’s anything the past two years have proven, it’s how badly there is a need for mental health resources in communities across Colorado.

The coronavirus pandemic, coupled with a difficult political environment and economic uncertainty, has taken its toll on many families.

As lawmakers have allocated more resources to try to meet the state’s growing mental health needs, individual counties are also doing what they can to help.

In Douglas County, the Sheriff’s Office has expanded its Community Response Team (CRT) to six and now has two teams dedicated to visiting schools to work with students who are experiencing mental health issues.

“We’re getting involved. We want to call the parents, make sure they know — make sure the parents know — that there are resources out there for them,” said CRT MP Zachary Zepeski from the Doulgas County.

The Sheriff’s Office has also established a Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Response Team (HEART) comprised of three navigators who work with law enforcement to respond to get in touch with people. homeless in the community and try to connect them with community services.

The county has come under fire this year for a prison reintegration program, which helps recently released homeless inmates find shelter and resources. Sometimes these inmates are transported to other cities like Aurora.

It’s something Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said he wants the county to stop doing because it could set a bad precedent and encourage a jurisdiction to export its homeless people to others.

For CRT teams, however, the goal is to work with people on a voluntary basis to connect them with mental health resources that work with their insurance policy.

Zepeski has been associated with clinician Bob Froug for about three months. Each morning, the couple gets into an unmarked SUV, goes through a list of referrals, and then makes house calls to people with mental health needs.

“Because of the stigma associated with mental health, we tend to see a lot of untreated mental health issues,” Froug said.

Froug has done crisis work for about four years and has worked as a mental health professional for the past 20 years.

He says showing up in an unmarked car with no lights or sirens and just talking to people can immediately help them feel comfortable enough to talk about their issues.

Then the pair will work with the resident to try to determine what resources they need and who to connect them with.

“We can sit and talk for as long as they need,” Zepeski said.

That Monday, the two men check their list of calls and decide which one they think should be answered first.

Froug says the most critical calls come first, but if someone has recently been released from a mental health wait, the couple try to give them a few days to settle in before contacting them so that he does not feel overwhelmed.

The first stop of the day is at a man’s house in Douglas County to check on him, but there’s no response, so they leave a note and move on to the next house.

The CRT’s attempt to contact each person three times before closing their case.

Their third stop of the day is a welfare check. A young woman answers the door to her apartment in Lone Tree and immediately Zepeski tells her that she has no problems and that they are here to help her.

First, they begin to assess the seriousness of the woman’s situation, asking her if she wants to harm herself or others and if she has access to weapons. After that, they start asking questions about his personal situation to understand the problem and what resources would be best for him.

Eventually, they give her their contact information, take hers, and tell her that a resource specialist will contact her later that afternoon.

“She’s going to get the help she needs eventually, and to be completely honest, Bob and I are very worried about her,” Zepeski said.

The couple say it is never their intention to have to take someone to a mental health facility for involuntary detention or force them into treatment. However, they know how confusing the state mental health system can be.

“It’s really difficult to navigate. It’s a lot, and it can be almost overwhelming,” Zepeski said. “The fact is that most of the time the mental health system is broken, but teams like mine, teams with mental health facilities that do a bit of what we do and even hospital staff, all these people are making so many changes.”

Around the holidays, calls for mental health services from RTCs increase dramatically. This pair have answered as many as 21 calls in a single day in the past, even being on three at a time in the last week alone.

“Every holiday, especially from Thanksgiving to New Years time, we see an exponential increase in calls for service,” Froug said.

However, there are good times, like the time Zepeski got to talk to a suicidal kid from a bridge and ask for help. He says that after spending 20 minutes with the teenager talking to him and talking to him on a human level, the teenager gave Zepeski a big hug and is now in college and doing well.

The couple also spent hours last week driving around the community looking for a suicidal man and when they finally found him they were able to have him seen by a mental health expert that day.

“This opportunity, this safe place where people can talk. It’s incredible. It’s incredible, the result; people feel so much better because they feel they’ve been heard,” said Froug.

Every day there is a new list of calls to answer because the mental health needs of the community never go away. This pair is just hoping that one by one they can connect people with the resources they need to make a dent in the mental health crisis in the state.

If there’s anything the past two years have proven, it’s how badly there is a need for mental health resources in Colorado communities.

Every day there is a new list of calls to answer because the mental health needs of the community never go away. This pair is just hoping that one by one they can connect people with the resources they need to make a dent in the mental health crisis in the state.

If you or someone you know has mental health issues, you can dial 988 for Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24/7, visit Colorado Crisis Services, or click here for a list of resources in Colorado.