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...

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