County News

By Roger Baker
County Manager

01/25/2007 - Families United is a nonprofit family organization that helps provide mental health services for children in Gilpin County; the organization’s Executive Director, Deb Turnham, came before the County Commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting to explain the organization’s structure and function.

  This is an example of an organization in transition. Originally, Colorado received a six-year, multi-million-dollar grant from the federal Mental Health Services to create a system of care for youth with serious emotional or mental problems, especially those who might have, or were at risk to, become involved with the juvenile justice system.

  The original grant went to Denver, and Jefferson, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties. That in and of itself was a challenge, as an organization that would well serve the myriad of problem patients in Denver might find itself at somewhat of a loss in the much smaller and more rural Gilpin County.

  Additionally, the grant was awarded in 1999; that means the federal funding has now run out, so the services have to be funded, if they are to continue, at the local level.

  Families United, formed in 2004, bridges that gap between large and small counties, by concentrating on Gilpin and Clear Creek counties. This is another case where, even if local government decides that a service is worthwhile, it may not make sense to offer it directly. Because of our small population, having an on-staff caseworker in our Human Services department for just this sort of youth outreach runs the danger of being either underutilized, or completely swamped. Affiliating with an organization such as Families United allows Gilpin County to make the services available, without having to worry about the variables of client demand and staffing to accommodate it.

  Better still, Families United is now entirely grant funded, so it doesn’t cost the County anything. And it can avoid out-of-home, residential treatment for some of these troubled children, at $5,000 a month, it can really provide some significant savings to our own Human Services department, and ultimately the state.

  Certainly there are unique challenges in working here in our mountain communities; one of them is thinking we don’t have problems like this here. Unfortunately, we do—right now Families United is serving five families and seven young people. This is a way of providing intervention and support that can make a big difference in the lives of all involved, with a minimal expansion of government. Ultimately, that’s good for all of us.