Mental Health

Solitary confinement intensifies problems for incarcerated people. It also changes the Colorado therapists who send them there. Loopholes, safety concerns and a lack of alternatives to solitary confinement mean Colorado clinicians in jails and prisons face ethical and moral dilemmas daily.

Colorado is tackling a surge in eating disorders with its acting governor signing two bills to address the mental illness. The bills signed Tuesday will create a state program dedicated to addressing the mental illness, limit the use of body mass index in determining treatment and restrict the sale of diet pills to minors.

The Colorado Sun Editor David Krause joined us to discuss the planned closure of Broomfield’s 1stBank Event Center and the settlement reached between police and the family of Christian Glass.

Governor Jared Polis has established today, May 24th as Christian Glass day. The proclamation is a tribute to the 22-year-old Boulder resident who was shot and killed by police in Idaho Springs last summer.

The parents of a 22-year-old Colorado man killed by a sheriff's deputy while suffering a mental health crisis will get $19 million from state and local agencies and changes to how officers are trained under a settlement.

Experts are hopeful a new state law will lead more facility schools to open. Meanwhile, school districts are creating their own programs, and creative and skilled educators are finding ways to meet students’ needs in traditional classrooms.

The special schools have no central oversight and instead are the responsibility of multiple state agencies. A new law aims to increase accountability.

Colorado is racing to save the schools that serve children whose home districts can’t or won’t meet their intense needs. This is part 1 in a four-part COLab, Chalkbeat, Colorado Sun and KFF Health News series examining Colorado's collapsing system of schools that serve students with intense mental and behavioral health needs.

The additional support will help the beleaguered facility school system grow by 40% statewide.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the highest levels of suicidal thoughts among teenage girls in over a decade.