WASHINGTON (AP) — Chris Scheuerman believes the military he served for 20 years failed his Army son Jason, who shot himself to death in his Iraq barracks almost three years ago.

Carefully choosing his words before a hushed congressional audience Friday, the father spoke of how the 20-year-old private’s superiors largely ignored the soldier’s signs of distress and his family’s expressions of alarm in the days leading up to his suicide.

Click here to read the full Associated Press article.

Life was spiraling in the wrong direction for Stephanie Winkler — 18 years old with a month-old son, an arrest for fighting with the baby’s father and therapy for depression.

Colorado’s first juvenile mental-health court program — designed to keep juveniles with mental-health diagnoses out of the criminal justice system — threw Winkler a life preserver.

Click here to read the full Denver Post article.

State Medicaid agencies are playing an increasing role in funding, managing, and monitoring public mental health services in States, reflecting the steady growth over the last three decades in the share of public mental health services funded by Medicaid. Yet relatively little is known on a State-by-State basis about how Medicaid agencies are exercising their responsibilities for mental health services. The survey described in this report begins to fill that gap.

Click here to access a full version of the report.

Colorado’s teens top the nation in depression, and its young people drink, smoke and use dangerous drugs more often than their counterparts in most other states, a federal study shows.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report is based on responses by 136,000 people to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Click here to read the entire Rocky Mountain News article.

• LEAD selected for best practices and model for other community health centers to emulate
• First Lady Jeannie Ritter adds congrats
• Award adds to continued recognition at national, statewide levels

• Empower and educate employees through experiential learning;
• Enhance retention of valued employees;
• Facilitate the promotion of qualified individuals who have a commitment to the success of the organization;
• Give employees a closer perspective on the Center’s mission, values and board goals; and
• Increase internal communication and collaboration.

• Recognition in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services which named the Center a part of a nationwide effort to bring the very best treatment for children who have suffered serious trauma.

• In 2002, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services chose to fund an alliance between the Center and the Metro Community Provider Network to bring integrated behavioral and primary care to homeless adults.

• The Colorado Division of Mental Health named the Center as the number one Community Mental Health Center in Colorado in 2006.

• Recently, the LEAD program was recognized by the national Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce as one of the top programs in the area of leadership nationwide.