Since Summit County mental health nonprofit Building Hope launched nearly a decade ago the organization has been ceaselessly in motion, doling out hundreds of scholarships resulting in over 5,000 therapy sessions for those who couldn’t afford it otherwise. 

Building Hope executive director Kellyn Ender told Breckenridge Town Council members at a Feb. 25 meeting that an analysis on the organization’s work showed the primary target populations served were adolescents and adults. They and community partners feel a new group needs more attention going forward: young children.

“We need more play therapists, and we need more family support, parenting support, things like that for those younger folks … we have gaps in that sort of system,” she said. 

She said next immediate steps involve putting out a request for information to providers in conjunction with the county and other community organizations to gauge what programs are out there and assess what type of funding is available for them.

She said a key aspect of enhancing offerings locally is providing monetary support to small mental health providers, like local therapist offices, because those are the bulk of the providers in the area. 

The organization doled out 119 grants to mental health providers and peer professionals to aid in professional development, licensing supervision, paid internships and provider or peer-led support groups. 

“Most significantly, that has helped with the insurance game here in Summit. We have worked with credentialing programs and a third-party billing program so that we can work with the providers to not only accept the insurance, but then use billing services as a part of their practice benefit,” Ender said. 

She said the nonprofit has seen improvements around when and how many people can access care and a boost in the provider’s capacity to take patients. There are still gaps in bilingual mental health care, she said, and they are addressing that by working to bring more providers to the area and expanding tele-health opportunities. 

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While supporting young children will be a future focus of the nonprofit, Ender said it has been able to fill in service holes for middle and high schoolers related to peer support and substance abuse through partnerships with Mile High Behavioral Healthcare, Vail Health Behavioral Health and Summit Community Care Clinic.

She said a survey showed the number of Summit High School students experiencing extended periods of sadness or hopelessness dropped from 30% to 20% from 2019-2023. She added excessive alcohol usage for the age group also dropped around 20% during that time. 

“We don’t have information or too much reporting on if they’re switching to a different drug of choice,” she said, noting they are working on getting more data around that.

Council member Carol Saade asked Ender for more information on one of the organization’s newer partnerships with Paragon Behavioral Health Connections. Ender explained Paragon Behavioral Health Connections is a mobile crisis response program which differs from Summit County Sheriff’s Office’s mobile crisis program, System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART), in that it doesn’t necessarily involve law enforcement.

According to its site, the Lakewood-based organization uses an integrated technology platform to provide immediate support to individuals in need of urgent support in both rural and urban parts of the state.

“They have a paired response if needed, through the fire department or paramedics, but they respond to all the mobile crisis that comes through our state line or 988, the national line,” Ender said.

She said the provider has a community stabilization program that allows them to keep working with a client — who called the 988 line — every day for two to three weeks after that crisis, including wrap around services for adolescents.