We need to have an honest conversation about mental health in Denver. So, we did.
WellPower President & CEO James Greer and Service Success Manager Bobbi Halfhill recently met up at WellPower’s Dahlia Campus for Health & Well-Being to talk about some of the challenges facing behavioral health providers right now and how WellPower continues to serve people who need us the most.
If you pay attention to the news – and we know Report to the Community readers like you do – a few of these challenges won’t surprise you. Funding cuts, in particular to Medicaid, combined with a long list of other changes and an increasing need for services mean that WellPower has an even bigger job ahead of us than in past years. We can’t give up, though – we need to continue providing best-in-class mental health services to more than 20,000 children, families, teens and adults every year.
You can watch the full video below, and read on for a quick summary of James’ and Bobbi’s conversation – including what you can do to help.
What’s one thing people should know about WellPower?
“Well, there’s not just one thing that people should know about WellPower, because WellPower provides an array of service as a comprehensive safety net provider,” said Greer.
From traditional therapy and medication management to evidence-based housing support, job skills training and access to education, basic needs, healthy nutrition and community spaces, WellPower offers something for everyone. We also partner with a wide range of governmental and community organizations to further embed mental health throughout Denver, whether it’s our Co-Responder and STAR programs or specialized services in nursing homes.
“Our goal is to basically meet people where they’re at and address social determinants of health,” Greer added. “And when you meet people where they’re at, then they determine what their well-being looks like and what their recovery looks like.”
What’s keeping WellPower leadership up at night these days?
We are living through a time of intense and wide-sweeping changes from all directions. Some of these changes present real, immediate challenges to WellPower.
Greer didn’t sugar-coat anything in responding to Bobbi. “There are multiple things that are keeping us up at night,” he explained. “At the federal level, we’re concerned about the Medicaid cuts that potentially have a cascading effect from the federal level down to the state level.”
WellPower receives a sizeable majority of our funding from Medicaid, which provides life-saving healthcare coverage for more than 1.1 million children and adults in Colorado. Because our mission as an organization is to provide high-quality behavioral health services for our community, most of the people we serve are Medicaid members. The Medicaid cuts outlined in H.R. 1 will likely have a devastating impact on thousands of children, families, teens and adults we serve.
“At the state level, what we’re concerned about is the budget deficit,” said Greer. “And that will have an impact on community safety net providers such as WellPower, along with other community safety net providers as well. And we just truly don’t know what those impacts are yet.”
WellPower is working hard on responding instead of reacting. We’re finding efficiencies in our administrative processes, aligning our service offerings with reimbursement changes, continuing to recruit the best care providers to serve our communities and tightening budgets across the organization.
What’s the most exciting thing WellPower has been involved with in the past six months?
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. In the midst of funding cuts and challenging state changes, WellPower stays focused on our mission.
One recent bright spot? Our brand-new Sheridan on 10th housing program, which provides 60 additional units of supportive housing for the Denver community.
“This is WellPower’s small way of trying to address our unhoused crisis here in the state of Colorado,” said Greer. “That came to completion in May. And since May, we have fully occupied that entire building.”
Decades of evidence about the housing first model show that when people are housed, they have a significantly higher chance of long-term recovery. Stable housing allows people to address other parts of their life, whether that’s mental health symptoms, substance use or gaining the skills they need for meaningful employment.
Sheridan on 10th has truly been a collaborative effort. Greer explained: “We’ve had many folks from the community involved. So elected officials, who help support this program, state agencies who help support this program, as well as the neighborhood association helped support this program. Other investors as well.”
“That shows that when we come together as a community, we can accomplish great things,” Greer added.
If there are people watching who are ready to help, what are some things they can do?
First, visit wellpower.org/support. There, you’ll see a wide array of opportunities to be involved in our work based on your interests and bandwidth. We welcome support from our community in many ways – donations and beyond.
In addition to donations and volunteering, Greer highlighted another key way anyone can be involved right now. “One of the biggest pieces is around public policy. We need community support to communicate the message of how important mental health is and funding going into a community safety net provider such as ourselves.”
Your voice matters. Your perspective matters. And right now, we need both.
This isn’t about tomorrow’s crisis. It’s about today’s reality.
For mental health support
As always, if you or someone you know needs urgent support, call, text or chat 988, the Mental Health Lifeline. In Colorado, you can also visit a walk-in center for immediate, in-person help in a crisis. Denver’s walk-in center (operated by WellPower) is at 4353 E. Colfax Ave. Find the location closest to you here.
Ready to explore mental health support for yourself or a loved one? Click here to learn about accessing services at WellPower or call (303) 504-7900. We gladly welcome Medicaid members, and we accept a range of Medicare and commercial insurance plans.