Gilpin launches virtual therapy for residents

On today's show, we hear about a new virtual behavioral health kiosk for Gilpin County residents that's removing barriers to access for mental health services for the rural community.

The program, provided through a partnership with Jefferson Center Mental Health, aims to reduce stigma around mental health support while giving Gilpin residents a safe and accessible way to receive the care that they need. 

If you're a Gilpin resident, you can book your appointment through the Jefferson Center here: www.jcmh.org/getting-started/

Also

• TEENS Inc. faces delayed opening for child care center 
• New tea shop in Central City opens

Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Finding a therapist can be hard. Making the time, getting there, paying for it, that can be even harder. For folks who live in the mountains, these obstacles are compounded by long drive times, poor internet connection that makes virtual therapy difficult, and a culture of independence reinforcing the belief that you should be able to handle things on your own. A new program at Gilpin County Public Health is working to tear these barriers down. Today, we're gonna find out how. Welcome to the Mountaineer Podcast. I'm Tyler Hickman. On today's show, we're diving into Gilpin's new virtual therapy program that launched in the mountain community on August 1st in partnership with the Jefferson Center, a safety net behavioral health provider. We'll hear more on that later. Before we get to this week's top headlines, I've got a quick word from one of our sponsors, the Regional Air Quality Council. This summer, go wild for front-range air quality. Take simple steps for better air to help reduce ground level ozone pollution and to protect your health. Taking public transit, carpooling, and combining trips, riding your bike, working from home, and going electric all help us breathe easier in the warm and sunny summer months. Know when it matters most by signing up for ozone alerts from the Regional Air Quality Council. Learn more at SimpleStepsbetterAir.org. Netherlands Teens Inc. is seeking a payment plan for fees still owed to the town that could delay the opening of its new child care center this fall. Last week, Director Steven Lefavre requested a five-year payment plan of over $390,000 in tapping fees to connect the center to Netherlands wastewater and sewer system. LeFaver and Teens Inc. Board of Directors member Tom Howold said decreased availability of federal funding, along with a million dollars in grant money that has yet to be distributed, have put financial constraints on the center. $360,000 of this payment is already factored into Netherlands' 2027 wastewater budget, according to town manager Jonathan Cain. A delayed payment could potentially lead to rate increases for residents. According to Teensink's lease, the fees are to be paid in a quote, timely manner, with no defined deadline. The board decided to consider the proposal and its impact on other town services. A denial could prevent the new child care center from opening its doors next month, when 59 kids are expected to begin attending. On the streets of Central City, set to the tune of operatic scales and peak-to-peak motorists, there's a new tea shop in town. A few weeks ago, reporter Mindy Leary went to check out the House of Oddities. That's T-E-A-S. Give it a read and stop by for some herbal brews if you're passing through. Those were the headlines. You can read these stories and so much more in this week's print edition or at the MTNEAR.com. Now it's time to head to Gilpin County Public Health for our feature segment.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

I'm embarrassed to say that I need help. And we really want to help people understand that they're not alone. They don't have to go it alone. And there are great resources.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

That's Elisa Witt, the public health director for Gilpin County. Earlier this month, they announced a new program with the Jefferson Center, bringing a virtual behavioral health kiosk to the small mountain community of just over 6,000 residents.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Well, what this kiosk program does is it gives residents the ability to come to our office, have a private space where they can do their counseling session if they choose, and you know, have reliable internet, which some people in our county don't, uh, depending on where they live. You know, in the mountainous environment, internet service can be spotty. So it offers that privacy, it offers that flexibility, and it offers that secure internet.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Gilpin teamed up with the Jefferson Center for Mental Health to make this possible. The county has been working with a front range-based safety net healthcare provider to bring low to no cost in-person therapy to its residents. Due to Gilpin's small size, it doesn't make sense to have a full-time therapist available. So Jefferson Center helps to fill in the gap. Enough residents have been taking advantage of the program for the Jefferson Center to take notice, though.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

So we've always offered that as a county. A place where a counselor from Jefferson Center can do in-person face-to-face counseling with their therapists, and they see people of all ages, children, adults, seniors. Anyway, what we've noticed, and again, a lot of this just has to do with the volume. Um, you know, we're a very small community, and so to have a full-time therapist here is not cost effective. They just don't have enough volume. We do have a therapist that comes to our office and sees people face to face, and she's she's her clientele has been growing. She's very busy, she's doing great work. So she's here every Monday in person and every other Tuesday by appointment. But Jefferson Center um came to us and said, Look, we do believe there's more of a need um for counseling services in your community. More people, I think, would access it if they had a virtual option. So that's what this kiosk program is is expanding of their base services, a face-to-face in-person counseling to give people more flexibility if they would like to have virtual counseling. It doesn't have to be specifically on the days that a counselor is here in person.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

The kiosk program dates back to COVID when quarantine and social distancing prevented folks from meeting with the Jefferson Center providers in person.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah, so during COVID, folks were not able to access services in the traditional means or methods. Um, and so we partnered with some of our community service providers where we knew our clients were already showing up for services and essentially created some space for those clients to be able to access our services virtually. So we would provide them with some technology, whether that be a tablet or a laptop or however is needed to access those services. And then we created the internal structure of essentially a virtual office where we have our front desk staff working that virtual platform to greet people when they come in, assess for needs, and connect them with services.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

That's Taylor Clepper, the director of navigation and housing services at the Jefferson Center. She says the program was targeted at the unhoused population at first. But rural communities like Gilpin are met with similar barriers to mental health services as someone experiencing homelessness in a place like Westminster.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

The idea is how do we reach the folks that we're unable to reach, right? And I think a lot of times our unhoused community in the metro area has similar barriers to connectivity that our folks in the mountain regions have. So not having stable internet access where they're staying or living is a common problem in the mountain regions. Not being able to get down the hill because transportation is not available or not affordable. Um sometimes weather is a barrier to do those things. So I think the real driving force here is how do we bring services to the people that need them in ways that they can access them?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Part of it is needs-based. But due to recent federal funding cuts to reimbursement rates, the portion of healthcare costs that the government covers for Medicaid participants. Jefferson Center has been forced to dial back some of its in-person offerings for communities like Gilpin. A Jefferson Center spokesperson said that these cuts are, quote, a challenging environment for behavioral health care providers, specifically safety net providers, and that the changes to reimbursement rates under Trump's big beautiful bill have increased the number of uninsured people seeking services. The center says it's, quote, having to be adaptable as the changes come. That means restructuring teams and programs so these services don't go away. Last month, Jefferson Center was forced to close an adult residential recovery program due to changing reimbursement rates. The program served close to 150 individuals annually. This kiosk program has become an important part of a long-term plan to ensure rural communities like Gilpin receive that care.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

You know, I think part of it came because they had to make a financial decision to cut some of the in-person counseling. So we used to have two therapists here, and one that just specialized in sh in children and supporting parents with early childhood, you know, behavioral issues. And she's still around, but she's now moved over to their center in Evergreen, and she was seeing quite a few families. So really it came through our our board of county commissioners and our board of health. And quite frankly, they were not happy that our in-person counseling services had to be cut, and that was a financial decision. Um, you know, behavioral health, a lot of funding has been cut at the federal level. And Jefferson Center has had to do staff cuts and rollbacks, and so they you know, to pay for counselors, they have to have enough of a caseload to have it not be a financial loss. So it was a business decision they made. And then our leadership said, Hey, you know, we're not happy. We we want our residents to have access to these services. And so this was their comeback and said, you know, this might be good fit for Gilpin County, um, because we do offer this at some of our other locations.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

As for using the kiosk, it's pretty straightforward, Elisa says. They want to make it as easy as possible for patients who book appointments.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

It's turnkey. There's nothing that the person really has to do. I think it's one or two clicks, and their therapist will be on the screen talking to them face to face with an iPad. So it's there's privacy, there's security, and there's should be easy to use.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

The kiosk is all about meeting people where they're at. Part of that is working to destigmatize mental health support in general. Something Elisa says can be even more difficult in rural communities.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yes, I believe stigma is much larger in some rural areas. I mean, I used to teach health at the Gilpin County uh school, like middle school and high school. And I specifically did a whole class, several classes, especially with the younger students, about what behavioral health counseling is, you know, why you should not be ashamed or embarrassed or feel inadequate because you need help. I mean, everybody needs help at some points in their life. We all, you know, have family situations, relationship issues, trauma, stress, illness, things that, you know, where we need to support ourselves with a professional for to get better coping skills, to understand our situation, to have resources that we might not be aware of. Counselors will help provide that, give ideas and support. Um, and yes, there's a lot of stigma where people feel like I should be able to handle this on my own. You know, I shouldn't need help. I'm embarrassed to say that I need help. And we really want to help people understand that they're not alone, they don't have to go it alone, and there are great resources.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

I have seen more stigma around mental health and substance use care in smaller communities. Um, I think it's trickier when everybody knows everyone else and you walk into a building that's labeled as something that might be stigmatized for people not to talk. So the hope is yes, that this kiosk program will expand access in general and reduce stigma because it's a not a mental health building, right? This is a public health building that um serves a different function overall. So um, because we haven't fully rolled it out yet, I don't know what the outcomes will be, but that really is the hope to both increase access and decrease that stigma that we often see in those smaller communities like Gilpin County.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Right now, the kiosk is a pilot program. Gilpin will run it for one year, and then it'll assess its effectiveness and usability. Lisa says there's a small operational cost, but in its first year, Jefferson Center is providing the service to the county for free. For the counseling sessions themselves, the center provides sliding scale covers and has payment options for those with low coverage or no insurance.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

I'm an optimist. I think this is really needed in our community. I do think it'll be a benefit. And so I my goal my goal is that this will be a permit program. That would that would be the best option.

unknown 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

If you live in Gilpin and you're interested in using the service, you can book an appointment online through the Jefferson Center. We'll drop a link in the show notes. That's all for today. Thanks to Elisa Witt and Taylor Clepper for joining the show, and to our listeners for tuning in. Remember to share the show around with your friends and neighbors, especially with folks who might be interested in booking an appointment with the kiosk. It's the best way to support the coverage we do here at the Mountaineer. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts to get more stories like this the moment we hit the airwaves. I'm Tyler Hickman, and thanks for listening. We'll be back next week with more news from the Peak to Peak. See you then.