colorado was ranked 31st in per capita spending for mental health in FY 2010, better than i expected it to be as we usually rank lower in other spending categories, including k-12 and higher education.

i am pleased the state has found the money to increase services and coverage, but i do hope that the money is spread out. the rural parts of our state, which is most of the eastern part of the state, do not have the resources the population centers have.

even my area, which is the county seat along the populated corridor of the state, is woefully underserved in terms of resources, particularly inpatient beds. the local mental health center does provide crisis support but the wait lists for treatments can be a month or more.

spending here is handcuffed by an amendment in our constitution that all tax increases must be approved by voters and limits the annual growth in state and local revenues to the sum of the inflation rate and the percentage change in the state’s population.

in 2008 i worked on a campaign for an additional sales tax to fund a new mental health treatment center, but it was handily defeated. i find it unfortunate that the catalyst for this was the movie theater shooting, but the issue is now more prominent on the radar.

that is trying to help close the gap in rural mental health care.

Mental Health First Aid provides training to "eligible" persons (usually part of an agency/institution) in order to get knowledgeable trained mental health responders into business, industry, and institutions (schools, churches, etc)

It ain't free, the 12 hours of training run ~$2000 per person. But, here is their link:

http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/cs/program_overview/

i'm going to print some of this info out and take it to my state rep and senator