Colorado child welfare leaders call on Gov. Jared Polis and lawmakers to help kids with severe behavioral health needs
Hundreds of child welfare leaders from across Colorado are sounding an alarm.
They fired off a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and state lawmakers demanding more resources to treat kids with severe behavioral health issues and warning of dire consequences if they fail to act.
"Our battle cry, I guess I would say, is it's time to kick it up a level," says Becky Miller Updike, executive director of the Colorado Association of Child and Family Agencies, which includes forty mostly non-profits that provide treatment for kids with severe behavioral health needs.
The letter urges the governor and legislature "to pull any and all levers to alleviate a crisis" that is "unconscionable" and "untenable."
The child welfare leaders say kids are "leaving our state for residential treatment or inappropriately sleeping in county offices, hotels (overseen by child welfare caseworkers), hospitals, and detention centers... due to a severe shortage of residential treatment options."
"If we want to treat the high-level kids, we're going to have to invest in the workforce that can handle it," said Updike. "And we're not there yet."
She says providers have never seen so many kids with such severe behavioral health issues, including deep trauma, violent histories and significant substance use disorders. There are also a disturbing number of kids as young as 5, she says, who are suicidal and homicidal.
Updike says residential treatment facilities need more funding to recruit and retain providers: "It's hard to serve kids with really, really severe mental illness or violent behaviors. They need to be paid a competitive wage and nonprofits haven't been able to keep pace with that."
The lack of residential treatment has put a strain on county human service agencies. Larimer County Commissioner John Kefalas says, beyond money, they need Polis' help: "One of the recommendations is that there be a designated person in the governor's office that can help bring all the parties together and ultimately come up with a solution."
They want a long-term solution. The state has approved one-time funding over the last couple of years but Jefferson County Human Services Director Mary Berg says those dollars are drying up and the need isn't letting up: "We need sustainable funding. We have short-term solutions for funding but we are deeply concerned that those are going to go away and then the problem is going to get even more critical."
Berg says states began shifting away from residential treatment a few years ago after Congress passed a law to address the over-institutionalization of kids. In Colorado, 47 facilities have closed leading to a shortage of residential care for kids who need it.
"We need more support, more resources, more leadership," Berg says.
The child welfare leaders told the governor and lawmakers, "we fear that the children and staff providing supervision in these stopgap settings will get hurt or worse, that desperate parents will continue to relinquish custody of their children because they feel they have no other options and that the Department of Justice will launch an investigation of Colorado as they have done in other states."
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The U.S. Department of Justice has found Alaska, Maine, Nevada, West Virginia and other states in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because they failed to provide the community-based behavioral health care that prevents kids from ending up in higher levels of care or getting stuck in county offices with no care.
Polis declined a request for an interview but Conor Cahill, his spokesperson, released the following statement:
"This is an alarming situation and the Governor appreciates this being brought to his attention - he cares deeply about the future of young Coloradans and has spent his career advocating for their success no matter where they come from. Governor Polis understands that youth with acute behavioral needs is a challenge that must be addressed and looks forward to continued efforts with the legislature and local governments on solutions to this crisis. Governor Polis worked alongside the legislature to allocate a historic investment of ARPA resources to reimagine our behavioral health system. Those investments will go towards meeting the complex needs of Coloradans but work remains to ensure the right services are available in the right places at the right time. The administration has called upon local governments that also received ARPA funding and hospitals that hold healthy reserves to match our investment to increase access and diminish barriers to treatment. The Governor is committed to continue working with the legislature and local governments to ensure Colorado's children have equitable access to high-quality treatment."