Tune into Jazz 89.3 FM KUVO Public Radio THIS Friday, April 16 to hear our Executive Director Michael Guthrie talk about our organization!  He will go live on air at 11 am.

To listen live from your computer follow the link below!

http://www.kuvo.org/index.php?s=89

Beacon Youth and Family Center is proud to announce the launch of The Crisis Connection Program (CCP).  As of Monday, April 5, 2010 Beacon Center has expanded their services to include an innovative program that serves kids who need mental health treatment but not hospitalization.  In coordination with behavioral health organizations (BHOs) and community mental health clinics (MHCs), we have designed a program which provides a level of care not currently available in the Denver area.

 When a family takes a child into the emergency room because of a crisis at home the primary option in the past has been hospitalization.  This often does not address the specific youth’s needs and may not be an effective source of treatment.  In addition, the family is not included in the treatment process and the cost of care is very expensive.

Beacon Center’s Crisis Connection Program addresses these needs directly.  Through this program, when a family brings a child to the emergency room, MHCs are contacted.  Following some evaluation, Beacon Center is brought in.  We have staff available 24/7 to go to the ER, work with the child, family, MHC and hospital staff, and bring the child to our residential facility for a safe place to sleep and a hot meal. At the same time, our staff makes an appointment to meet with the family the very next day.  A clinical assessment of the both the child and the family is done.  Within three to five days the child and family are united with a long-term out-patient treatment plan.  Therapy is begun immediately, in an intensive and individually structured process, and continues over the next few months. 

 Our program offers a significant opportunity for a child and family who are headed in a bad direction to be educated in the skills for them to make different choices.  They receive the opportunity to understand their own struggles, and to choose better ways of thinking and acting.  A lifetime of better choices lies ahead.

 For counties, mental health centers, hospitals, and payers (insurance companies, BHOs and Medicaid) this CCP is an opportunity to provide effective care, available 24/7, which immediately engages the family, is much more cost effective, and has the possibility of much better outcomes.
 
For further information about our program please feel free to contact Michael Guthrie at mguthrie@beaconcenter.org or 303-761-6756 ext 26