Advancing Our Community Mental Health Services
For more than 40 years, the JFS Mental Health department has partnered with clients, families, and the community to create opportunities to achieve emotional wellness and stability. With a team of skilled mental health professionals, we are dedicated to helping, improving, and making a difference in the lives of those struggling with mental health issues in the metro Denver area.
We’re excited to share that JFS has received two grants that will strengthen our mental health services and allow us to do even more to help those who can benefit from mental health treatment.
JFS is developing and launching a new mental health program that focuses on connecting individuals who need psychiatric medication with a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP). They will be able to provide medication management and prescriptions thanks to a two-year Caring for Denver grant. The grant enables JFS to hire a full-time PMHNP and provide psychiatric medication support to clients working with therapists and clients seeking medication-only services. The PMHNP will work collaboratively with JFS therapists and external referring therapists to ensure proper medication and dosage are prescribed for acute and chronic mental health conditions to current clients. They will also accept outside referrals from therapy-only providers who struggle to keep up with medication-only client needs. This expansion will increase access to psychiatric care providers and medication management for clients who are uninsured, underinsured, and covered by Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance within the City and County of Denver.
The National Mental Health Workforce Collaborative grant from the Mental Health Institute at Metropolitan State University Denver aims to increase the number of qualified licensed mental health and substance use treatment clinicians while increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in patient-facing mental health and substance use treatment positions. Through this grant, JFS will receive partial funding for two unlicensed, post-master’s degree mental health therapists seeking licensure for our school-based KidSuccess team. Our innovative KidSuccess program places trained JFS therapists and graduate program interns in schools, providing children and adolescents with access to free, quality mental health counseling services so they can succeed academically and emotionally. Our new therapists will be able to help students even more as we eliminate barriers to behavioral health care by offering comprehensive, culturally competent in-school prevention, intervention services, and mental health treatment.