Montezuma County’s crisis intervention program will be out of funding June 30 and forced to stop its operations.
In the three years it has been around, the Community Intervention Program has responded to thousands of noncriminal calls countywide.
It sends a behavioral health clinician from Axis Health Systems and an EMT from the Cortez Fire Protection District for things like substance and alcohol abuse.
As of June 26, the team had responded to 525 calls just this year; in 2024, 1,077 calls.
In May, the team was recognized at the Red Cross Rocky Mountain Heroes in Denver for doing “rare” work and being a “community champion.”
“CIP has been such a benefit,” said Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin. “We’re so shorthanded at the Sheriff’s Office, so losing it is a tremendous loss.”
Behavioral health issues seem to be increasing, he said.
“Just last night we had two separate suicide calls and three mental health-related calls,” said Nowlin. “It’s happening every day.”
Having CIP around to respond to such calls, he said, has taken a burden off law enforcement.
But funding dried up.
CIP started in May 2022 as a county program, but as state and county budgets grew ever slimmer, the county cut it at the end of last year.
“We gave it a shot, now we’re passing it on,” County Commissioner Jim Candelaria told The Journal in early January. “As funding dwindles, we have to evaluate what we can and cannot do.”
To save the program, the town of Mancos agreed to be its fiscal sponsor at its board meeting on Jan. 8.
“Mancos needs it,” said Mancos Town Administrator Heather Alvarez months ago. “If we’ve got to keep a countywide program just for the benefit of people in Mancos, we will.”
And they did, for a while.
“Originally, it was going to end in December. We were lucky to get some bridge funding and get more time,” said Haley Leonard-Saunders, Axis Health System’s public information officer who has worked on CIP since its start.
The SouthWest Opioid Response District awarded CIP almost $78,000 of opioid settlement dollars to cover the cost of Cortez Fire Protection District’s EMTs. Axis reallocated money to pay for the team’s behavioral health clinicians through June.
All its collaborators – the Cortez Fire Protection District, Axis, Mancos and others – were confident they could find grant money to keep the program going beyond July 1, which was when grant funding was set to run out.
“Unfortunately, the funding we identified – there was a lot out there – was pulled back,” said Leonard-Saunders.
Federal cuts slashed the more than 35 grant opportunities they had identified as possible funding sources for CIP. Some of that money was reinstated, but not in time to save the program.
“Plus there were funding concerns at the state level,” said Leonard-Saunders. “We just couldn’t make it work.”
Mancos Town Administrator Alvarez said, “We are devastated we could not continue it.”
But “the town of Mancos just could not fully fund this program on behalf of the entire county and other municipalities,” she said. “Staff is working on a program that will solely serve the town of Mancos citizens and residents.”
That program “is still in the very preliminary discussion phase,” she said.
Mancos Town Marshal Justen Goodall said fundraising and grants were not sustainable funding.”
“We have to have a continued stream of revenue,” said Goodall.
He recommended having eight months of sustainable funding in hand before starting an program like CIP.
Leonard-Saunders said that all four CIP staff were offered jobs – two at Axis and two at Cortez Fire.
“Nobody is without a job, which was really important to us,” she said. “They’re all locals, and they put a lot into this.”
She said she didn’t realize the team’s personal impact until she saw Facebook comments about it.
“One person said that they don’t know where they’d be without them. One said how the community is so lucky to have you, another said this program saved my life,” said Leonard-Saunders.
“We created something so customized to this community and it was completely homegrown,” she said. “People got creative to fill a need. … It makes me hopeful we can do it again.”
In the meantime, there is still support in the community for those who need it.
Cortez Integrated Healthcare, 691 E. Empire St., offers walk-in crisis services free of charge. Patients will be connected with a crisis professional on-site or can be connected with a telehealth professional.
A jail-based behavioral health team helps inmates get back on their feet, and a 24/7 Axis care line in which a mobile team can be dispatched – just not as quickly as CIP.
The Piñon Project in Cortez has support services. So does Sand Canyon Therapy and Silver Lining Recovery Homes.
“There’s a continuum of emergency services … and there are co-responder programs that need to be solidified at the state level and even federal level,” said Leonard-Saunders. “Until then, the community will have to come up with their own solutions.”
The story was updated at 2:19 p.m. to correct a quote.
