For over 65 years, Jefferson Center for Mental Health (Jefferson Center) has been the nonprofit community mental health center serving three counties west of Denver, Colorado, with the mission “To inspire hope, improve lives, and strengthen our community by providing mental health and related solutions for individuals and families.” Jefferson Center provides a comprehensive array of services for people with behavioral health disorders, helping more than 28,000 people annually at over 100 community-based and clinic locations in the region.
Third Horizon Strategies (THS) partnered with Jefferson Center in several meaningful ways. In 2022 and 2023, THS supported Jefferson Center in obtaining a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) Planning, Development, and Implementation grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and provided individualized coaching on CCBHC implementation. THS also facilitated a learning collaborative for CCBHCs in which Jefferson Center participated.
More recently, THS provided project management and strategic guidance as Jefferson Center consolidated with Jefferson Hills, a subsidiary corporation, to create a more streamlined and integrated line of acute children’s services. The merger will result in greater value and a wider array of services for Colorado’s children, youth, and families. This could not come at a better time, as the prevalence and severity of behavioral health concerns among children and adolescents have grown. For example, in 2020, mental health-related visits to emergency rooms jumped 31 percent among adolescents ages 12 to 17 nationwide. In 2021, the Children’s Hospital of Colorado declared a state of emergency for children’s mental health.
Jefferson Center’s acute children’s services are particularly notable because it provides the only crisis stabilization unit (CSU), called “New Vistas,” for children and adolescents in the state. On the same campus, Jefferson Center offers the Academy, a licensed day treatment program and alternative school for children and adolescents, and a youth residential recovery program. Watch this video to hear compelling stories about the impact of New Vistas.
When families are in crisis, we know they need a place of calm, where the noises and the stress and the desperation can end, and the healing can begin.
To learn more about Jefferson Center, visit https://www.jcmh.org/about-us/
To learn more about how THS can support behavioral health providers, associations, payers, or government entities, contact Mindy Klowden, Managing Director for Behavioral Health at Mindy@thirdhorizonstrategies.com