Invest in a Better Future for Pediatric Mental Health

Children cannot wait for better mental health support. Give our kids the mental health services they need when they need it.

Invest in a Better Future for Pediatric Mental Health

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Together, we can change the state of pediatric mental health

Colorado ranks 42nd in the nation for access to youth mental health care. Our goal is to be ranked among the top 10. We cannot wait to build a new future for mental health. Our kids deserve to have the help they need when they need it. Children’s Hospital Colorado is committed to kids and teens who need help with mental health challenges.

Kids in our community cannot wait

Suicide

is the leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24

226K

kids and teens in Colorado have diagnosable mental health conditions

Only 22%

receive professional care

Doing what is right for kids

We lose millions of dollars helping kids in mental health crisis every year. In fact, many pediatric mental health providers across Colorado have been forced to close because these losses are too great to maintain services. Despite this financial reality, we stay true to our north star of doing what is right for kids. At Children’s Colorado, we say enough is enough.

“I’m lucky I got the care I needed. I’m able to put in work for a better life. But there are so many kids out there who need help, and that’s why kids’ mental health matters.”

Chloe, Children’s Hospital Colorado patient Ambassador

Barriers to getting the right care

Mental health care is patchy and inconsistent in Colorado. Families trying to navigate “the system” have no clear answers, and some never break through the barriers.

Young people like Luthien cannot wait for better mental health support

Imagine if things were different. Together, we can get there.

Partner with us to create a better mental health future for children

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Support the greatest need

Give to the areas of greatest need to direct funds where they can do the most good and help break the mental health stigma. Your donation can support programs like Creative Arts Therapy, including music, dance, art and yoga to help young people express themselves during a mental health challenge, telehealth services, expansion of mental health services on Children’s Hospital Colorado campuses, and events hosted by the Youth Action Board, a group at Children’s Colorado where teens ages 15 to 17 advocate for and educate peers and the community about the need for mental health services.

Give to Support Greatest Needs

Setting a new standard

Our facilities are in need of expansion and renovation to set a new standard for mental health treatment. Your support is transforming the Pediatric Mental Health Institute where we treat the full spectrum of mental health disorders. Every detail carefully considers the needs of patients going through a mental health challenge. Renovations include adding inpatient rooms to meet the rising demand, expanding capacity for Partial Hospitalization Programs, adding a respite area for families, and expanding our patient rooms so that families can sleep overnight and be involved in their child’s treatment.

Give to the Renovation Fund

Understanding mental health

Your partnership is essential to better understanding mental health disorders. This includes fueling our progress in developing and testing better clinical interventions for childhood anxiety, behavioral difficulties, deregulated mood and psychosis. Creating better school-based interventions and services for children and adolescents with serious mental health conditions. And studying the brain to understand what contributes to the development of anxiety disorders, pinpointing the causes of severe irritability, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Give to the Research Fund

Breaking down barriers

Partners for Children’s Mental Health (PCMH) operates as a cross-system resource, training, and implementation hub to increase capacity, access and quality of youth mental health services in Colorado. Through collaboration with partners across the state, PCMH works to identify, scale, and sustain best practices that will help save lives and get mental health treatment to Colorado children. This includes educating primary care providers in both urban and rural communities, implementing evidence-based suicide training in schools and creating mental health tool kits that will be distributed across Colorado. But the work has only begun.

Give to the PCMH Fund

The mental health future of our kids cannot wait

Suicide is the leading cause of death for kids in Colorado, and many weeks, self-harm or suicide attempts are among the top reasons that patients seek mental health care in our emergency departments.

On May 25, 2021, Children’s Hospital Colorado issued a State of Emergency for pediatric mental health for the first time in our 117-year history. Our hope in making this bold statement is to bring greater attention and resources to bear as we seek to make progress in solving the current mental health crisis in Colorado and across the region.

Fighting for this is more necessary and urgent than ever before. Our kids and teens are suffering because of the existing barriers to care. Too many are dying without having received the professional support they needed when they needed it. Nothing will change until we take action. Our kids deserve more and they deserve it now.

We have a plan to…

Expand inpatient facilities to help kids and teens in crisis

We can make sure more kids and teens who are experiencing a mental health crisis have access to care. We are redesigning our Pediatric Mental Health Institute to add inpatient rooms, which will allow us to treat significantly more kids and teens.

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Train primary care providers about mental health

We have a plan to educate and support primary care providers across the state who are connected to Children’s Colorado on how to better identify mental health issues. They will have the support to know how to diagnose and treat mental health disorders.

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Bring pediatric mental health services to more communities

There is only one pediatric psychiatrist for every 7,000 kids and teens in Colorado, compared to the national average of one per 1,800 kids and teens. Most counties in Colorado do not have one at all. But kids in every community need help.

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Provide the best family-centered mental health care for children

For kids, a stay in the hospital can be overwhelming, and often they’re comforted by one thing only: their families. We have a plan to redesign our spaces at the Pediatric Mental Health Institute for families to stay together and be involved in treatment.

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You can help create a new mental health future for our kids

This is an ambitious undertaking, but it is the right thing for our youth and the future of the state of Colorado. When you give to the Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado, you support a new mental health future.

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Resources for families

Children’s Colorado is dedicated to helping children and adolescents by expanding the reach of evidence-based, family-focused mental health care. This includes providing family resources, empowering teens to help friends in need, and a guide to starting a conversation with teens about suicide to promote mental wellness and break stigmas.

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