Trying to move the needle in Mesa County’s mental health crisis as leaders call the moment “historic”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice

“This is historic. This is transformational. This is a game changer.”

Suicide now claims about 50 lives a year in Mesa County, a rate of roughly 31 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s about one and a half times Colorado’s rate and more than double the national average. At the same time, nearly 13 percent of residents who needed mental-health care last year weren’t able to get it.

Those realities form the backdrop for a local effort that has taken shape inside Canyon View Vineyard Church. The program is called BeWell, and it began with a simple question: what a Jesus-centered mental health approach could look like in a county where access is limited.

How the idea took shape

Sondrol said the idea started forming as he watched Compassion Ministry Director and former Air Force mental-health technician Landon Miracle interact with people in the church’s benevolence and food-pantry ministries. “It was amazing to see somebody with a compassionate heart and this incredible experience in counseling,” he said. “Seeing what was happening, it was like, this is working.”

That observation raised a larger question about whether a church could offer accessible mental-health support.

Pastor Cory Sondrol, left, and Landon Miracle at Canyon View Vineyard Church on Nov. 20, 2025. Photo by Jen Schumann.

Miracle spent months studying treatment modalities, comparing them with Scripture and looking for places where therapeutic tools could be integrated without losing spiritual footing. “A lot of them are very humanistic in theory, saying the answer is already inside of you,” he said. “That’s not what the Word says. So I had to investigate, take the good and leave the bad.”

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) became one tool with its emphasis on metacognition.  For example, it “gave language” to the verse about taking “every thought captive.” Acceptance and commitment therapy helped people consider what they cannot control. “There are tools we can use that point people back to God’s ability to handle things,” he said.

A community already in crisis

Sondrol’s interest was personal. He described how he had checked someone he cares for deeply into Mind Springs. Another time he arrived on scene to a man hanging in a tree and the wife asked him, “Please tell my kids their father is dead, I can’t do it.”

Such moments reflect a deeper need they both see in the people they meet. “People don’t need a lot of information,” he said. “They need presence. When we devote ourselves fully to somebody in that moment, they feel heard and loved, and then they can believe change is possible.”

“Progressivism says we’re progressing as humans,” Sondrol said. “But you cannot make the case we’re progressing in mental health. Suicide is up. All indicators of happiness and wellbeing are less than 1950.” He said spirituality shows a similar pattern. “We cannot say we’ve progressed beyond early followers of Jesus. It’s probably regressed.”

Both said people often need someone who will sit with them and listen. “Most people are missing connection,” Miracle said. “We mistake attention and connection.” He said that when someone feels genuinely heard, “they can believe change is possible.”

Demand grew quickly. In the past year and a half, BeWell has delivered more than 500 free sessions through clinicians, trained coaches, pastoral support and therapy tools including CBT and EMDR.

Miracle said one sign of the need came through their intern, Tara, from Colorado Christian University. Under supervision, she carried several hundred sessions—a “huge impact,” he said—showing how much additional staff could expand the program.

“Every time Cory mentions BeWell, people show up,” Miracle said. “But we don’t have the resources to keep up with it.”

Sondrol said the county’s mental-health “needle” sits in the danger zone, despite the many groups trying to respond. “There’s about 40 organizations doing great mental-health work in Mesa County, and fantastic counselors and therapists who are overwhelmed by the need,” he said. “We just think together we can help move the needle.”

A model built on multiple pathways

BeWell is built on a bio-psychosocial-spiritual model. It takes the whole person into account—body, mind, social environment and spirituality—recognizing that strain in any one area can affect the rest.

“The secular world is dealing here… the church is dealing here… both are missing parts,” Sondrol said. “What if we had the best of both worlds?”

For some people that means coaching through thought patterns. For others it means addressing deeper spiritual wounds.

Sondrol said some moments show needs that go beyond clinical tools. He recalled a number of times where spiritual oppression manifested in ways that were sometimes unexplainable—scientifically.  From skin moving, to voice changes or eyes rolling back—and sometimes a person unable to move. “I know it sounds pretty bizarre but the spiritual battle is as real as the psychological battle.”

“People try medication and great therapy, and they should,” he added. “But they’re unaware of the spiritual piece. If that’s addressed in love, they can be free… sometimes in one moment.”

Miracle said many breakthroughs come through simple tools that help people understand their emotional patterns. “A lot of people tell us, ‘I feel like I have things I can actually use now.’” 

A boardroom conversation after a loss

Interest in the program grew this fall after a local resident heard about the work through word of mouth from someone in the Canyon View community. The man, Sondrol said, is known for giving generously each year to organizations that need support.

Days before the meeting, they learned he’d lost a friend to suicide. “The man and his friends were all heartbroken,” he said.

During the meeting, they asked what expansion would require. Sondrol later told the congregation that he normally downplays needs in those moments, but this time he answered directly: “He asked, ‘How much do you need?’ And I looked him in the eye and said, ‘We need one million dollars.’”

The man later called, offering a match of up to $400,000 raised for the program. Sondrol shared the news with the congregation on Nov. 9. “This is historic. This is transformational. This is a game changer. And I don’t know why God put it on this wonderful man’s heart to invest into us—cause we’re doing it together. You’re the peer counselors. We got to figure this out. God provides what he purposes.”

What expansion would allow

BeWell’s team has positions ready to fill as soon as funding comes in, including intake staff and more trained coaches and clinicians. Sondrol said they also hope to convert the church’s older chapel into a mental health center with offices, meeting rooms and counseling areas.

Sondrol said these changes would significantly expand their ability to support residents who need timely help. “We will help more people,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Meeting the county’s growing need

Colorado remains among the hardest-hit states for mental-health needs, and nearly 17 percent of residents last year said they couldn’t get the care they needed. In Mesa County, suicide-related ER visits among young people run especially high, topping 1,200 per 100,000 teen girls.

BeWell’s leaders hope that expanding access through coaches, classes, prayer teams, spiritual direction, clinical referrals and a dedicated space will bring Mesa County closer to the care people are seeking.

More information about the BeWell program is available at canyonviewchurch.com/bewell. Donations can be made at canyonviewchurch.com/give by selecting “BeWell” in the fund menu.

“We’re hoping a Jesus-centered mental health effort that’s free and available to all is one part of helping Mesa County become the most loving county in all of the U.S.A.,” Sondrol said.