Two of Colorado’s neighborhood psychological well being facilities will merge in July, creating the biggest behavioral well being heart within the state.
WellPower, which offers psychological well being companies and homeless outreach in Denver, is combining with Jefferson Heart, the safety-net psychological well being group for Jefferson, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties.
Collectively, the 2 have nearly 2,000 staff and serve about 48,000 folks per yr. The facilities have cellular medication-assisted remedy for sufferers hooked on opioids, walk-in disaster facilities and outreach applications that ship psychological well being professionals out with RTD employees, regulation enforcement and park rangers.
By combining, the facilities will have the ability to provide an extended record of dependancy and psychological well being applications, mentioned Kiara Kuenzler, CEO of Jefferson Heart. The partnership permits the facilities to mix know-how processes and different bills, in addition to fill gaps in specialised care.
She referred to as the merger a “daring response” to Colorado’s behavioral well being disaster, wherein suicide is the main reason behind dying for younger folks and deaths attributed to fentanyl have skyrocketed. “We’re assured that the strengths of our two organizations mixed will allow us to fulfill the wants of our communities in a method that has by no means been finished earlier than in Colorado,” she mentioned in an e mail asserting the merger Thursday. “By coming collectively, we are able to meet the wants of our neighborhood quicker and extra successfully than we might ever do alone.”
The merger made sense now due to latest adjustments in Colorado’s behavioral well being system, together with a restructuring of how neighborhood psychological well being facilities are regulated and funded. The state’s 17 regional psychological well being facilities have been involved that they’ll lose funding as Colorado revamps the system, opening it as much as competitors with non-public behavioral well being entities. The facilities, which have lengthy operated underneath no-bid contracts with the state Medicaid division, have been underneath intense scrutiny up to now couple of years.
“We should adapt for the longer term,” mentioned Dr. Carl Clark, CEO of WellPower, which was previously the Psychological Well being Heart of Denver. “We imagine that becoming a member of our two organizations is a robust resolution.”
Jefferson Heart served greater than 26,000 folks in 2022 and has a funds of about $90 million. WellPower, which served about 22,000 folks, has a funds of almost $144 million.
Kuenzler will function president of the brand new group, whereas Clark will probably be CEO till his retirement. The joint group will function underneath the WellPower identify.
Vincent Atchity, president of the advocacy group Psychological Well being Colorado, mentioned he hoped the merger of two “key gamers” would result in elevated entry to housing companies and different helps, in addition to “applied sciences which might be important to folks’s well-being —stopping crises, enhancing disaster response, whereas lowering hurt, criminalization, and over-reliance upon regulation enforcement and the jails.”