Mental health awareness takes center stage in off-season

New support groups, a men’s group and successful Green Light Campaign

[  By Katherine Nettles  ]

When Crested Butte State of Mind (CBSOM) launched its first Green Light Campaign in 2021, the first beacons of unique lighting color began to pop up throughout the valley’s business districts and outside private homes, sharing a message of hope and understanding around an increasingly common subject—the struggle with mental health. 

CBSOM, a nonprofit organization and self-described “mental wellness connection” that provides support to community members through a network of mental healthcare providers, started handing out green lightbulbs for a week in April that first year. This was in recognition of the sometimes-difficult transition for locals at the end of ski season before summer recreation and tourism begin. That first awareness week ultimately became a month-long campaign, which at the conclusion of its fourth year is thriving with more support and reach than ever.

CBSOM executive director Meghan Dougherty describes in more detail how April and May can be a difficult time in the Gunnison Valley. “Many people who work seasonally face a reduction or complete loss of income as the ski season ends. For others, they continue to earn money, but lose a valuable recreational outlet or face isolation as friends and family leave the valley for off-season travel,” she says. For those reasons, CBSOM chose April as its local Mental Health Awareness Month, although nationally it is recognized in May. 

“We know both from personal experience, community conversations as well as the local data that both substance use and challenges with mental health increase immediately following the closure of the resort and during off-season,” says Dougherty.

CBSOM began distributing green lightbulbs to the community that first year as a way of encouraging people to participate in mental health awareness by changing a lightbulb to green in a visible location at home or their places of business. Green is the nationally recognized color for mental health awareness, and signifies new life, new growth and new beginnings.

“We had so much positive feedback but heard loud and clear this should be extended for the entire month, so ever since, we have done just that,” says Dougherty.  

When the campaign expanded to the entire month in 2022 it became the Green Light Campaign, a Gunnison Valley Mental Health Awareness Month. 

The campaign has grown to include more awareness events, efforts, programming and more throughout the month, in addition to its message of lighting the way for mental health from Gunnison to Mt. Crested Butte.

“Every year it seems to get bigger and better,” says Dougherty. 

It takes a village

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Month concluded this week and each of the valley’s municipalities, the Resiliency Project, Crested Butte Mountain Resort and many others supported the 2024 campaign. “We have handed out another 1,000 green lightbulbs up and down the valley. There are so many partnerships this year helping to make this a huge success and really highlighting that it is ‘our’ community campaign, and this valley truly cares for one another,” says Dougherty.

CBSOM also added a business sponsorship portion to the campaign to help offset the cost and raised more than $7,000.

And new this year, CBSOM partnered with community organizations, businesses and individuals to offer more than 40 free community connection events throughout April. These events included everything from free movies and yoga classes to drop-in dance classes, jam sessions, silent book clubs and a Sober Ski Free. 

Dougherty says the events were well attended and well received. 

“We wanted to give people an opportunity to engage and connect with one another in a free and open environment. We have always toyed with the idea of hosting events as part of the campaign in some capacity and have tried a few in the past. However, they are not always well attended as people are often coming and going during the month. So as a solution to this and the organization’s overall capacity, we decided to lean on our community, put out some feelers and had an overwhelming response,” she says.  “We would like to see this effort continue throughout the year, so stay tuned.”

The campaign also expanded through specials with local businesses that support mental health in various ways. CORE, a small business in Crested Butte that specializes in fitness, personal training and nutrition, offered a Mental Health Matters Special on memberships in April and donated 10% of all sales to CBSOM. Dougherty notes that regular exercise has been shown to have a profoundly positive impact on depression, anxiety and ADHD while relieving stress, improving memory, sleep and mood stability.  

Fullmer’s Ace Hardware in Gunnison held a register round-up special for three days during which sales could be rounded up to the whole dollar and donated to CBSOM. They also sold green lightbulbs with 50% of proceeds donated to CBSOM.

“The partnerships this year were really overwhelming in all the best ways,” says CBSOM board member Sarah Kramer, who is also the clinical supervisor for the Axis Health System in Crested Butte. “It is really a testament to how CBSOM has involved the community and has become a key link to behavioral health resources. As a behavioral health worker for Axis Health System and CBSOM board member, I feel so fortunate that my organization has a growing partnership with CBSOM. It’s fun to be right here at 412 Elk with our own (Axis) set of green lights, contributing to the de-stigmatization of this issue and the felt-sense that you aren’t alone out here on the journey forward.”

Year-round support systems

Although the month-long campaign has ended, CBSOM’s year-round work continues in providing community members who need support with access to mental healthcare resources. 

“In addition to our stigma reduction and mental health awareness efforts, we continue to provide easy and free access to anyone who needs it,” says Dougherty. “We have provided over 4,000 individual sessions of counseling to 340 individuals in just four years. We are seeing a real shift in people’s openness to talk about mental health and reaching out for help, especially among those reaching out for the first time.”

There is also a new partnership and expanded suicide prevention effort called Brothers Helping Brothers. 

“The concept of the new Brothers Helping Brothers men’s group is to help provide mental health peer support to the men in the Gunnison Valley. In the past 16 months we have lost 13 community members to suicide,” says Dougherty. “Over 80% of our suicide losses were male, and 70% of those males were between the ages of 21 and 41.  In looking at those statistics and discussions with community members valley-wide, a male focused program is very much needed in our valley.”

Dougherty says that many men report not feeling that counseling is a tool that would be beneficial to them, and feel instead that getting together with other men and discussing the issues they deal with, learning from others that have been through similar situations and collaboratively coming up with solutions that may lighten the load or solve the issue is a much more appealing way to receive mental health support.

“The intention is for the events we host in collaboration with Crested Butte State of Mind, GCSAPP and the Gunnison County Health Coalition to bring awareness to men’s mental health and to what we are doing to help support the men in our community,” says Dougherty. “The funds we raise will be used to pay for a monthly Meet and Eat dinner for attendees and also a monthly activity day where they can get together to enjoy one of many activities and have any rental equipment and snacks/meals also paid for.  We do not ever want the cost of an activity to prohibit someone from joining and finding the community connections to help support them.”

Brothers Helping Brothers kicked off with a Putt Putt Challenge fundraiser to start the new groups in Gunnison last month. “Passionate community members are leading the effort under CBSOM’s umbrella,” summarizes Dougherty.

In April CBSOM also started to offer support groups in partnership with a few local therapists and local business Synergy Fitness to support community members impacted by trauma and grief. Dougherty says these have been very well attended, and amidst all the tragedy that shook the community this past winter season, she is choosing to focus on this positive shift. 

“We are seeing more and more individuals and agencies being open to talk about trauma, asking for group support and guidance, asking questions and showing up for one another. We are so honored that the community sees CBSOM as a trusted and safe resource to turn to when needed,” she says.

More information can be found at cbstateofmind.org including links which allow people to take a short online quiz or assessment and explore mental health screening tools. Those can be found at https://cbstateofmind.org/learn-more/do-i-need-help.

A guide to mental healthcare in/around Gunnison County:

 Prevention/Early intervention 

• GCSAPP (education, wellness/positive youth development, sober activity sponsorships) www.gunnisoncounty.org/156/Gunnison-County-Substance-Abuse-Prevention
• Early Childhood intervention (Axis Early Childhood Specialists) www.axishealthsystem.org/treatment-services/early-childhood-mental-health-consultation/
• School-based services (Gunnison Valley Health, Gunnison Valley Watershed School District-based therapists available)

Outpatient services

• Psychiatric care, medication management, mental health or substance use disorder therapy, televideo therapy/services, therapeutic groups, peer services, case management (Axis, GVH, and CBSOM/independent private therapists)
• Axis: appointments 970.252.3200, referral forms at axishealthsystems.org
• Special population services – Jail Based Services (GVH – counseling and medication)
• Western Colorado University counseling program (GVH), Youth Suicide Prevention (Axis)
• Solvista Health Regional Assessment Center, Salida (719) 276-5488 solvistahealth.org/locations/regional-assessment-center

Crisis hotline and mobile crisis

• Local (GVH) Mobile Mental Health clinicians respond to community members experiencing a behavioral health crisis – accessed through dispatch (970-641-8200)
• 988/Colorado Crisis Services (1-844-493-TALK) can provide phone support and will also ask initial assessment questions and refer to the local in-person team if they deem it is needed.

Urgent/higher levels of care

• GVH Emergency Department is not licensed for inpatient psychiatric services, but they can assess individuals in crisis at the ER and connect people to inpatient care elsewhere in the state. Peer services and televideo assessment are part of this experience.
• Axis Regional Crisis Center – Montrose: 24/7 Crisis Walk-in services, Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) for short-term stabilization, withdrawal management, assistance with accessing higher levels of care (inpatient/residential) and 24/7 Axis Care Line: free support 970.247.5245
• Inpatient Care – (Mindsprings – Grand Junction)