Colorado mental health program gives new option for outpatient suicide prevention

A new mental health treatment option in Boulder is working to lower suicide rates.

The Hope Institute has already helped people stay out of the hospital for mental health crisis in other parts of the country and now the organization is aiming to do the same in Colorado.

The Hope Institute began in 2020 and the Boulder office is their fourth location -- following Ohio, Arizona and Georgia. The Boulder office opened in October with a grant from the city and it already has dozens of clients. The center's goal is to provide care in between general therapy and hospitalization. Clinical Director Dr. Benjamin Finlayson explained that this resource takes a new look at treatment by focusing closely on suicide prevention.

"Looking at our statistics, Colorado also has one of the highest rates of death by suicide in the country," Finlayson said. "Us being here is really taking a proactive look at treating and addressing why suicide is so much higher in the state of Colorado."

In their 5 to 12 week program, therapists like Alexa Waller aim to be more focused than general therapy might be.

"Spending time talking specifically about suicide isn't always an experience that people have had in individual therapy. And so we talk a lot about different skills for coping, distress tolerance," Waller said.

Waller explained that some of the Hope Institute's work aims to make patients more comfortable talking about uncomfortable topics. He said some fears clients that bring in include the following:

- "If I say this word, is my therapist going to call the police?"
- "Am I going to be sent to the emergency room, or am I going to be taken somewhere against my will?"

"My goal is to treat you on an outpatient basis, as long as that is safe and as long as that's appropriate for [clients]," Waller said.

The institute is already seeing results. After their first year in Georgia, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta saw fewer patients coming back to the hospital for suicide-related issues. They dropped from 90% of patients returning in 30 days to just 6% in four times as long. Now after two years, the Hope Institute says that number is under 2%.

Finlayson has not only worked in mental health advocacy for years but seen the need for programs like this firsthand.

"Not only have I also experienced my own suicidal behaviors and thoughts of suicide growing up, it's also been in my community, being within the LGBTQIA community, I've lost a lot of family of choice through suicide," Finlayson said, "I've seen the difference it can make when we talk about it, when we when we bring it into the room and we say, yes, you're not alone in this," Finlayson said.

In their first two months, the Boulder clinic is already working with the city's mental health response team and the University of Colorado Boulder to offer their services and provide another option for mental health support.

Jessica Ladd-Webert is the Senior Director in the Division of Health and Wellness at CU Boulder and has already seen the impact with students.

"Providing support for a large community, it's great to have a dedicated resource in our own community," Ladd-Webert said, "Our counseling center has already made referrals to them and found them so responsive. And when I met their director we knew that they would start out quickly and fill up fast."

The Hope Institute says they work to accept patients within 24 hours of that first call, and work to make it accessible by accepting most insurance and work on a cash or sliding payment scale for those who need it.