Beacon Youth and Family Center has expanded their services to include an innovative program serving kids who need immediate mental health treatment, but who do not require hospitalization. In coordination with behavioral health organizations and community mental health clinics, Beacon Center has designed a program, which provides a level of care not currently available in the Denver area.
When a family takes a child to the emergency room because of a behavioral or mental health crisis, the primary option in the past was hospitalization. But hospitalization often does not address the young person’s individual needs, it does not involve the family from which the issues may have originated and it is very expensive.
Beacon Center’s Crisis Connection Program addresses the needs of both the child and the family directly. Through Crisis Connection, when a family brings a child to the emergency room because of a behavioral crisis, a community mental health clinic will contact Beacon Center. Staff will be available seven days a week, 24 hours a day to meet the child and family at the hospital and bring the child to our residential facility to have a safe place to sleep and a hot meal. Meanwhile, Beacon Center staff make an appointment to meet with the family the next day when a clinical assessment of both the child and family is completed. Within three to five days, child and family are reunited with a long-term, out-patient plan. Intensive, individualized therapy starts immediately and continues over the next few months.
Crisis Connection Program is unique–the family is engaged immediately, while the crisis is fresh in their minds and they are open and willing to undergo therapy. Crisis Connection staff are available every day, any time of day to respond to children in need and families in crisis. Finally, Crisis Connection is the first step in a long-term treatment plan that serves as the starting point to improving lives.
For further information about Crisis Connection Program, please feel free to contact Michael Guthrie at mguthrie@beaconcenter.org
24 hour Crisis Connection Phone Number: 303- 789- 0200
For additional information download our brochure: CCP brochure