Despite the high need, children in poverty are least likely to be connected with mental health services.  Long waitlists, prohibitive costs, and structural barriers all prevent children and adolescents from receiving the mental health care they need and deserve.

Our Mission and vision

Whole Child Colorado envisions a future in which all youth have access to affordable, high-quality mental health care. By increasing assess and availability of mental health services, we want to work towards a future in which mental illness is viewed as a treatable health condition, not something that must be suffered in silence. Our mission is to provide free and affordable school-based therapy to children, adolescents and transition-aged youth in the Denver Metro Area. By basing licensed mental health professionals in school buildings, we eliminate the most common barriers to receiving treatment, can understand and respond to specific community needs and form partnerships with schools and communities to reduce the stigma of mental health. 

Mental Health by the numbers

• Suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 10-24 in the state of Colorado.[1]

• Colorado’s suicide rate is twice the national average.[2]

• Eighty-eight percent of Latino youth, 77 percent of African-American youth and 76 percent of white youth have unmet mental health needs.[3]

• Thirty-one percent of white youth receive mental health services compared to 13 percent of children of color.[4]

• Twenty percent of female Latino high school students seriously considered attempting suicide and 15.4 percent made a suicide plan compared to 16.1 percent of white female students who considered it and 12.3 percent who made a suicide plan.[5]

• Children in poverty are least likely to be connected with mental health services.[6]

• LGBTQIA+ youth are 4 times more likely and questioning youth are 3 times more likely to attempt suicide, experience suicidal thoughts or engage in self-harm than cisgender people.[7]

• Thirty-eight to sixty-five percent of transgender individuals experience suicidal ideation.[8]

• Fifty percent of life time cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% begin by age 24. The average time delay between onset of symptoms and intervention is 8-10 years.[9]

• Thirty-seven percent of students with a mental health condition aged 14 and older drop out of high school - the highest drop out rate of any disability group.[10]

• Seventy percent of youth in juvenile justice symptoms have a mental illness.[11]

  [1] https://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/research/suicides-colorado-reach-all-time-high

  [2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm

  [3] Kataoka, S., Zhang, L., & Wells, K. (2002) Unmet Need for Mental Health Care Among US Children: Variation by Ethnicity and Insurance Status. Am J Psychiatry, 159(9): 1548-55.

  [4] Ringel, J., &  Sturm, R. (2001) National Estimates of Mental Health Utilization and Expenditures of Children in 1998. Behav Health Serv Res. Aug; 28(3):319-33.

  [5] Ringel, J., &  Sturm, R. (2001) National Estimates of Mental Health Utilization and Expenditures of Children in 1998. Behav Health Serv Res. Aug; 28(3):319-33.

  [6] Hodgkinson, S., Godoy, L., Beers, L. S., & Lewin, A. (2017). Improving Mental Health Access for Low-Income Children and Families in the Primary Care Setting. Pediatrics, 139(1), e20151175.

  [7][8] https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/preventing-suicide/facts-about-suicide/#sm.0017uyztg17fofqtyx81urbmmaynr

  [9][10][11] https://www.nami.org/getattachment/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-numbers/childrenmhfacts.pdf