Mental Health

Troy Anderson: Are prisoner's conditions worse since winning supermax lawsuit?

Troy Anderson, a mentally ill inmate at Colorado's supermax prison, won a landmark decision last summer when a federal judge ruled he's entitled to at least three hours a week of fresh air and outdoor exercise. Now, Anderson's attorneys claim Department of Corrections officials have failed to comply ... More >>

John Hickenlooper lauded for bringing mental health into gun control talk

Governor John Hickenlooper is scheduled to speak at today's reopening of the Aurora Century 16, where "an evening of remembrance" will honor the victims of the shootings on July 20 during a screen of The Dark Knight Rises. Let's hope the event works as well as Hickenlooper's subsequent talk about g ... More >>

John Hickenlooper unveils new mental-health plan, days after Newtown tragedy

This morning's press conference to unveil Colorado's new mental-health plan was scheduled weeks earlier -- but the announcement ended up being very timely, since it took place just days after one of the worst mass shootings in history. And just as Governor John Hickenlooper's recent-gun control comm ... More >>

Gun control activists: 1000s of mental health records going unreported to FBI

Since James Holmes killed twelve people in Aurora, catalyzing heated gun control debates across the country, many have focused their attention on the suspect's past psychiatric care. As officials debate what can be done to keep guns out of the hands of those with a history of mental illness, a new r ... More >>

Growing numbers of veterans are becoming addicted to gambling

Where's the military when the chips are down?

Mental health care without drugs: "Expanding Our Vision" summit coming to Denver

The first thing Amy Smith has to explain to skeptics is that she isn't a Scientologist. You don't have to belong to an oddball religion to question American medicine's heavy reliance on psychoactive drugs to treat everything from mild depression to schizophrenia. In fact, members of a growing consu ... More >>

CU Boulder has higher rate of eating disorders compared to other colleges, report says

Hype spread throughout the aesthetically attractive city of Boulder after the release of the most recent 2011 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Boulder beat out most other cities across the nation, ranking number five (and number one in 2010) for "overall well-being." Mirror, mirror, on the wall, ... More >>

Heidi Hafenstine talks about art as therapy and her Goddess Project

​Most people stopped practicing art in grade school, and according to Heidi Hafenstine, that's why art therapy works so well for adults. Art, according to Hafenstine, offers a form of communication that taps into the subconscious. Because unlike language, most adults have lost their mastery an ... More >>

Boulder Youth Body Alliance: Teens to lobby Congress to improve eating-disorders treatment

Big pics below.​Tomorrow, Vally Dikovitskaya and seven other members of the Boulder Youth Body Alliance (BYBA), a program dedicated to helping teens with body image concerns and eating disorders, will be in Washington, D.C. They're hoping to convince Colorado officials to co-sponsor the Federa ... More >>

Mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement: New bill seeks to stop the madness

​Roughly four out of every ten prisoners in solitary confinement in Colorado is either developmentally disabled or mentally ill, a figure that's been rising steadily over the past decade. Senate Bill 176, headed for a statehouse committee review later this week, seeks to drastically reduce tha ... More >>

Solitary confinement study "deeply flawed," says ACLU

​As reported here last summer, a controversial state study suggesting no harmful psychological effects from solitary confinement was drawing heated protests from prison activists even before it was published. Now that it's been released, psychiatric experts and the ACLU of Colorado are saying ... More >>

Denver brings meth addicts and cops together in an unprecedented fight against drugs

Supermax opening in Colorado: Is lawsuit-filing Troy Anderson on "the list" to move there?

Troy Anderson​This week, without much fanfare and after months of budget-related delays, state officials opened one wing of Colorado's second supermax prison, designed to hold "the most disruptive offenders" who have "demonstrated the inability to function at a less secure facility." The mov ... More >>

Denver Health breaks ground on a new adolescent psych unit

​Denver Health broke ground this week on a four-story building that by late next year will be home to an adolescent psychiatric facility. Although the psych ward's new digs won't be a whole lot bigger, Denver Health officials say they will be a lot better. In terms of hard numbers, the facili ... More >>

Troy Anderson: Mentally ill inmate sues state over decade in the hole

Troy Anderson hasn't been exposed to direct sunlight since 2000.​Troy Anderson knows he's never going to get out of prison alive. He's spent 23 of his forty years on the inside, and though he's never killed anyone, he's currently serving a 75-year sentence on multiple counts for two shootouts ... More >>

Medical marijuana: Chris Romer wants to raise the age for MMJ patients requiring two doctor recommendations to 23

Chris Romer's adding a couple of years to his proposal.​Senator Chris Romer is the sponsor of Senate Bill 109, a measure that aims to clarify the relationship between doctors and medical marijuana patients. It was approved by the Senate in February. Last week, however, Romer admitted to being ... More >>

Medical marijuana fight: Health department lobbies against MMJ use in treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder

Photo by John J. Kruzel, courtesy of the U.S. Defense DepartmentThe use of the lifelike simulator shown here has been approved for PTSD treatment.​Update, 4:00 p.m.: Representative Sal Pace's amendment relating to medical marijuana and post-traumatic stress disorder has been defeated, and the ... More >>

Stan Garnett: Colorado has mishandled the medical-marijuana issue

Stan Garnett and Jann Scott: e-mail buddies?​Beware of sending an e-mail to Jann Scott. The longtime public-access gadfly (profiled by yours truly back in 1992, prior to the launch of our online archives) tends to forward his correspondence to anyone and everyone -- and that's precisely what h ... More >>

Mental health benefit and submachine guns -- the perfect combination

A Hospital Without Walls

Denver’s Court to Community program is showing promise.

The Good, The Bad & The Mad

What happens to the mentally ill in the justice system is just crazy.

Killer Instinct

After Michael Tate lost all hope of a family life, he found the Devil.

You Do the Meth

Police raids bust up drug labs. But they also bust up families.

Trouble in Mind

Head Games

At least one out of every five Colorado prisoners is mentally ill -- some violent, some undetected or untreated. How did the Big House become the Bug House?

Follow That Story

Wild Child Revisited

Depressed About Anti-Depressants

Big Pharma explores the dependency on mood-altering drugs.

Nowhere Boy

His biological parents didn't want him -- but to get him the help he needs, his adoptive parents must give him up.

A Chemistry Experiment

The Denver Drug Court tests a formula for reclaiming addicts.

Looking for a Fix

Forty bucks buys a flicker of heaven and a life of hell.

The Shifting Drug War

The pendulum is swinging back from stiff mandatory sentences for drug offenses.

Toast of the Town

Denver C.A.R.E.S. picks drunks off the streets, then puts them right back out there.

Mind Games

The squeeze in managed mental-health care is choking patients and providers alike.

Teach Your Children Well

The state is finding ways to treat behavioral problems when they first appear -- in daycare.

Follow That Story

Order in the Court

A Mile High

Trick or treatment?

Call Me Crazy

When the accused reject a not-guilty plea, Colorado's insanity law breaks down.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of October 5.

The Wide World of Grief

Colorado has become one of the country's hubs for teaching, and learning, how to feel bad.

A Badly Altered State

A judge may force Colorado to take care of its homeless mentally ill population.

This Is Crazy

Stan Israel spent two days in a psych ward. There was just one little problem.

Head Case

A lawsuit is driving DU's Graduate School of Professional Psychology crazy -- or was it already?

Shrink to Fit

When Mental Health Services, Inc. went out of business, no one was around to help the therapists who were hurt.

Letters

Suicide Mission

The Big Fix

A new detox program for heroin abusers storms into Denver. Methadone proponents are irked.

Used and Abused

What's it like to work at the state's largest detox? These counselors were scared straight.

Fill'er Up

In Trinidad, you don't have to drink in bars in wind up behind bars

Mental Anguish

Rescuing the mentally ill has brought millions to the Mental Health Corporation of Denver--as well as complaints of coercion, mismanagement and neglect.

Letters