Summit County resident Eric Turner brought his guitar to California during his third attempt at inpatient treatment for alcoholism.

A lifelong musician, Turner said during the weeks he spent in the rehab facility, playing music not only relieved stress but also helped him connect with others. He called music a “very powerful” part of his personal recovery.

“It kind of created a community in the rehab facility,” Turner said. “I played every night. People would come and listen. They would join in, and other people would do some playing. It kind of brought us all together and created some additional support for everybody.”

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For people recovering from substance-use disorders, community is key. Anyone who is receiving treatment is going to have hard days — and having a person who will show empathy without judgment can make all the difference, Turner said.

“Support is absolutely invaluable in recovery,” Turner said. “Without people around you who are supportive of an understanding of what it takes to overcome addiction issues, then the chances of relapse increase dramatically.”

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Despite the prevalence of substance-use disorders, the public — and even many health professionals — view substance use as a reflection of character rather than a complex medical condition influenced by factors like housing, income and social connection, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In Colorado, a statewide health survey conducted in 2019 found that the stigma surrounding substance use is getting in the way of people finding help. Of those who reported in the survey that they did not get help for a substance-use issue, 3 in 4 said they did not seek treatment out of concern about what would happen if someone found out they had a problem.

With the prominent party culture in Summit County, the normalization of heavy substance use can further decrease the recognition of substance-use challenges, according to county public health documents.

“That peer pressure is really big here,” Turner said. “Because if you’re not part of the group, doing whatever substance, then you’re kind of on the outside — and nobody wants to be left out.”

Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue said that because substance-use disorders are so prevalent in mountain resort towns, community members need to learn how to be there to support one another.

There are more substance-use resources available in Summit County today than there were just a handful of years ago, Pogue said. In addition to familiarizing themselves with these resources, she encouraged residents to check in on their friends and work on creating social spaces that don’t revolve around substances.

“It would be rare in Summit County for us to not know someone who is struggling with substance-use disorder,” Pogue said. “For each one of us, it is important to know what kind of assistance is out there. We all have full responsibility to understand substance-use disorder, so we can care for loved ones who are struggling.”

“We have to recognize that substance-use disorder is an illness,” she added. “And we have to treat it as an illness. It’s not something we should be stigmatizing in any way.”

‘Booze less, do more’

Finding social connections in the Summit County community after coming back from inpatient treatment proved difficult for Turner.

Returning home, Turner said that he only started to recognize how prevalent substance use is in these resort communities once he was no longer part of that culture. At first, he said he lost a lot of friends because he no longer wanted to go out for drinks. 

“That created that separation between a lot of people we’d spent time with previously,” Turner said. “Because then you get people thinking, ‘Well, they’re not drinking; they’re not fun anymore’ or ‘They think they’re better than us because now they’re not drinking.'”

As a popular vacation destination, Summit County will always have a tourism economy that attracts people looking to party. But especially for locals, it can sometimes feel like engaging in substances is the only way to unwind or connect with the community, Building Hope Executive Director Kellyn Ender said.

That’s why the mental health nonprofit has partnered with local businesses and organizations to promote its “Booze a little less; do a lot more” campaign. The campaign, which launched last winter, acknowledges that the party scene in Summit County isn’t going anywhere. But it aims to change the culture by encouraging people to be conscientious about their drinking.

“Partying is common and second nature here,” Ender said. “The whole campaign is just about being more thoughtful around your drinking. We hear so often in the community that people end up losing interest in the things they moved here to do — enjoying the outdoors, hiking, biking, whatever it might be — because they’re so caught up from the night before.”

The “Booze Less” campaign isn’t aimed at barring people from consuming alcohol. Rather, it is focused on creating behavior changes by encouraging people to take actions such as mixing in a few waters between alcoholic drinks or skipping the last drink at the end of the night, Ender said.

There are plenty of people who can enjoy alcoholic beverages responsibly, but it is easy to slip into a mindset where drinking becomes a regular activity, Ender said. That is where the “do much more” part of the campaign comes in to remind people what brought them up to the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the first place.

“Challenge yourself to think about, ‘Why did I move here? Why do I live here? Am I doing those things that I love that make me feel joyful and happy and most successful,'” Ender said. “And if the answer is ‘no,’ then maybe think about why — and maybe it has to do with drinking.”

Because of the party culture in Summit County, it is easy to assume that everyone around you is drinking or engaging in substances, Ender said. But there are many people in the community who limit their drinking or don’t drink, she said.

To make community gathering spaces more welcoming to people who are sober or want to be more intentional about their alcohol consumption, Building Hope has also worked to expand mocktail and other nonalcoholic options at bars and restaurants.

More than 4 in 5 bar patrons desire nonalcoholic options, according to Building Hope. So the nonprofit created a special “Blue Run” designation for local restaurants and bars that offer a robust list of mocktails or nonalcoholic options.

Blue River Bistro, Saved By the Wine, Kemosabe at Silverheels, Broken Compass Brewing Co., Tavern Underground at The Carlin, Aurum, Eclectic Bar, Dillon Dam Brewery, Outer Range Brewing, Grecos and The Uptown on Main all participate in the Blue Run initiative.

Since the start of the “Booze Less” campaign, local nonalcoholic drink sales have increased by 20%, according to Building Hope. Meanwhile, the nonprofit reports that half of adults ages 18 to 25 say they have decreased their alcohol consumption.

“It is tremendously empowering to be able to find people who share — maybe not all the time but some of the time — ‘I want to be sober,'” Turner said. “Being able to find somebody who’s willing to share in those activities with you and keep it sober at least for that period in time, it makes the whole experience a bit more enjoyable.”

‘Faith in the resources’

While drugs and alcohol will always be part of the apres ski culture in Summit County, local therapist Ciara McCoy said there are many people in the community who want to change their relationship with substances.

McCoy is the county program manager for Mile High Behavioral Healthcare, which has an office at the Summit County Medical Office Building in Frisco. The organization has been providing local mental health services, specializing in substance use, since 2022.

“Substance use has no bounds. Addiction has no bounds,” McCoy said. “It doesn’t look like a certain person. Addiction can affect everyone and anyone. We see individuals who struggle with substance use around everything from meth to opioids to marijuana to ketamine to alcohol.”

Mile High Behavioral Healthcare offers a continuum of care — including therapists, case managers, peer services and medical treatment — and can be a great starting place for someone who is looking for help with mental health or substance-use issues, McCoy said.

Much of the work Mile High does around substance use focuses on harm reduction, McCoy said. Harm reduction is an approach that does not treat drug use as a moral failing and aims to reduce the harms associated with using drugs while also recognizing that all people deserve dignity. It calls for the nonjudgemental, noncoercive provision of services and centers on quality of life — not necessarily abstinence from all drug use — as the criteria for success.

“So, if someone comes in and says, ‘I’ve struggled with my relationship with alcohol for 20 years. I’m going to never drink again.’ Well maybe, but how do we take those smaller steps first?” McCoy said. “How can we maybe decrease the amount we drink in a night? Maybe it’s that we built in water? Maybe it’s that we build in a (nonalcoholic) option in between?”

While Mile High takes walk-ins, McCoy said the mental health center also aims to connect with people where they are at by tabling at events in the community. It also has hosted sober events and activities, from creating designated sober areas at Dillon Amphitheater concerts to running community groups for people to participate in outdoor activities like fly-fishing and disc golf.

Corey Levy — the wellness director for Vail Resorts, which is one of Summit County’s largest employers — believes employers also need to be involved in providing for the behavioral health needs of their employees. Employers need to recognize the role they play in helping their employees access health care, Levy said, and the Epic Wellness program at Vail Resorts aims to be a model for how large employers can implement a mental-health program.

Epic Wellness offers free therapy to employees —  as well as anyone in their households — in addition to a suite of other services, including virtual counseling options, a mindfulness app, professional wellness coaching and more, Levy said. By extending free therapy to anyone in an employee’s household, the program aims to address the needs of the community at large, he said.

“Wherever people are in their life spectrum, we want to empower them to recognize that they’re not alone, that people care about them,” Levy said. “If folks have good faith in the resources available, then they’ll be much more comfortable having what could be a potentially vulnerable conversation about someone they care about.”

‘A dramatic wave’

When Turner was still in inpatient treatment in California, one of the counselors told him that just because he retired from his firefighting career due to disability doesn’t mean that he can’t continue to help others.

Like sobriety, that stuck with Turner when he returned home to Summit County. Soon, Turner had started down a new career path as a clinician, and he now works at Slopeside Counseling in Dillon.

But he didn’t stop there. In an effort to help build more sober spaces in Summit County, Turner started the nonprofit Rock to Recover — a group that meets on a regular basis to jam and provide a safe space to talk about mental-health and substance-use issues. 

“One of the main benefits of music is that when we do it, we’re using a slightly different part of our brain than we use for normal everyday functions,” Turner said. “So the biggest benefit from that is that we’re able to provide ourselves some relief from anxiety and depression and that desire to use substances.”

Rock to Recover events are free and held on select Tuesdays at the Silverthorne Pavilion and select Wednesdays at the Summit County Community and Senior Center. Turner said anyone who wants to be sober, whether in the moment or long term, is welcome to come play music.

Summit County still has a lot of work to do to create a culture that is less focused around drugs and alcohol, Turner said. But across the community, Turner said that awareness of substance use is growing and more people are embracing the role of harm reduction.

“We’re not saying you’ve got to be sober all the time. Start by taking little steps, and maybe you’ll find out, ‘You know what? I really did enjoy myself better being sober,'” Turner said. “The more people who start embracing even that harm-reduction role, I think it’s going to start a dramatic wave through the whole community to reduce the overall use.”