Gunnison County

The Gunnison Consortium was created in 2019 to better understand our current services and resources to prevent, treat and support people who are recovering from substance use disorder. In order to understand our local needs and gaps a group of professionals joined together to create the leadership team. This team initially consisted of 6 key organizations; Gunnison County Substance Abuse Prevention Project (GCSAPP), Gunnison County Health and Human Services, the Health Coalition of the Gunnison Valley, the Center for Mental Health, Gunnison Valley Hospital, and Western Colorado University (WCU). Over the past three years this group has grown to over 30 individuals/organizations representing diverse sectors of the community and diverse representation including parents, youth, and individuals with lived experience who are in recovery. In 2019-2020 this group worked to understand the current needs and gaps in services and completed a report that was shared across the community and used to make a 3-year strategic plan. This group also created a video, locally produced, to help create the understanding that the opposite of addiction is connection. The implementation phase began in September of 2021 and some of the goals and strategies of this effort will include: - Provide behavioral health trainings to Gunnison Valley professionals - Provide scholarships and trainings to increase behavioral health providers - Provide education to prescribers on alternatives to opioid medication and understanding addiction. - Increase Medical Assisted Treatment (MAT) Services - Support scholarships for 10 free therapy sessions for community members. - Support for behavioral health specialists within the RE1-J schools - Increasing access to Naloxone and overdose awareness to minimize overdose deaths - Increase and support the use of school-and community-based prevention programs that are evidence-based. - Work with community members in recovery to help increase access to basic needs - Increase the number of recovery activities, organizations and diversify options