MIRECC / CoE

Rocky Mountain Short Takes on Suicide Prevention: Talking Community Response with Denver Co-Responder Team Program

8 March 2017

How communities respond to a mental health concern or crisis may directly contribute to consumer perception, potential stigma, and willingness to engage in help-seeking behavior. This week’s Rocky Mountain MIRECC Short Takes podcast highlights a local program invested in proactively reaching out to individuals who may experience mental health challenges, and build healthy relationships that better serve community members both in crisis and for the long haul. Please join Scott Snow (Director of the Crisis Services Division, Denver Police Department) and Chris Richardson (Program Manager of the Mental Health Center of Denver) as they talk about Denver’s Crisis Intervention and Response Unit (CIRU). Here is some of what they discuss:

• The program’s origins and goals
• How the Co-Responder program changes an old cycle of “wash, rinse repeat”
• Going beyond crisis response to linking citizens to needed services
• Diverting mental health from justice-involved and/or jail
• Tracking the outcomes, how’s it working so far
• Greatest successes and ways to improve

• Thank you to Scott and Chris for your time, and work within the CIRU, and sharing the following documents with us.
• Denver’s Crisis Intervention & Crisis Response Unit (CIRU) Fact Sheet
• Denver’s CIRU has received media coverage both nationally and locally, including the
  • Mental Health Center of Denver
  • The Denver Channel

The podcast is approximately 24 minutes long.

You can subscribe to the RM Short Takes Podcast on iTunes, Google Play or your favorite podcasts tool.

Categories: Suicide Prevention