Arnold Salazar, Executive Director of Colorado Health Partnerships, LLC, has been appointed to the  Centennial Care Choices Program Panel.  In the 2008 Legislative Session, Senate Bill 217 created the Centennial Care Choices Program to reform Colorado’s health care system.  This Governor-appointed Panel will work with individuals from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and the Division of Insurance to look for options to reduce the state’s uninsured population and improve access to affordable healthcare.  To view the Governor’s Executive Order and the complete list of appointees, click here.  CBHC will post updates as we learn more. 

Approximately two million Americans live with schizophrenia. Two-thirds do not receive treatment, even though the disease can be managed successfully.

The survey found the average age at onset was 21, but a nine-year gap exists between symptoms and treatment.

The report is available at www.nami.org/schizophreniasurvey. It is based on an on-line survey conducted by Harris Interactive among the general public, caregivers and individuals living with schizophrenia.

Click the link below to read the full press release.

Bipolar disorder is a mystery and a subject of medical debate. But for the Blakes, it’s just reality.

Max Blake was 7 the first time he tried to kill himself. He wrote a four-page will bequeathing his toys to his friends and jumped out his ground-floor bedroom window, falling six feet into his backyard, bruised but in one piece. Children don’t really know what death is, as the last page of Max’s will made clear: "If I’m still alive when I have grandchildren," it began. But they know what unhappiness is and what it means to suffer.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/137517/page/1 to read the full Newsweek article. 

The Excellence in Community Collaboration award recognizes an organization, or group of organizations, that use the power of partnerships to solve community problems.

Integrated Managed Partnership for Adolescent and Child Community Treatment (IMPACT) Program, Mental Health Center Serving Boulder and Broomfield Counties

The IMPACT Program is a Boulder, Colorado community collaboration designed to reduce the out of home placement of children and adolescents—placements away from their families and their communities. Since its inception, IMPACT is keeping more young people at home, in school, and out of trouble.

Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

In addition, researchers found about 19 percent of returning service members report that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed, with 7 percent reporting both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression.

Many service members said they do not seek treatment for psychological illnesses because they fear it will harm their careers. But even among those who do seek help for PTSD or major depression, only about half receive treatment that researchers consider "minimally adequate" for their illnesses.

Click here to read the full RAND Coporation news release.

After 26-years of service as executive director for Colorado West Regional Mental Health, Doctor Ken Stein is retired.

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.