ABOUT COLORADO MENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTE AT FORT LOGAN
One of two state-operated residential psychiatric hospitals in Colorado, the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan (CMHIFL), which opened in 1961, serves clients in the civil mental health system by providing treatment for co-occurring mental health disorders. All clients are referred for admission by the state’s Community Mental Health Centers. While the facility’s website does not indicate if it offers detox services, CMHIFL has a full medical staff and notes that their main mission is to “ensure that all individuals treated at CMHIFL will receive the best possible psychiatric and medical care.”
TREATMENT & ASSESSMENT
The Colorado Mental Health Institute accepts clients by referral from other mental health facilities. Clients are assessed to determine if the facility is a good fit. Clients are enrolled in residential therapy programs that are led by doctoral-level psychologists and pre-doctoral interns on four hospital treatment teams. Each team has a full-time or part-time psychologist. These psychologists perform legally mandated evaluations on all clients admitted for treatment. Testing and assessment in the areas of neuropsychology, diagnostic clarification, and behavioral management planning are also offered.
The program’s main treatment modalities are provided as part of the facility’s Therapeutic Activities Department, which is designed to address problem behaviors. Attention is paid to each client’s aptitude for self-care, leisure and social functioning, and ability to participate in therapeutic skills training groups and individual treatment sessions. The ultimate goal is to return the client to community living or a less restrictive setting as swiftly as possible.
Social work services are available through each of the four hospital treatment teams. These services include ongoing assessments, treatment and recovery planning, case management services, discharge planning, and aftercare planning. Pastoral services are also available, and the facility is equipped to provide interpretation services to all deaf or hard-of-hearing clients.
STAFF CREDENTIALS
Staff members at CMHIFL are licensed in Colorado and include doctoral-level psychologists and psychiatrists, certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioners, social workers, and registered nurses. The staff also includes qualified recreational, occupational, and music therapists. According to CMHIFL’s website, the Psychology Department at CMHIFL also consists of pre-doctoral interns.
ACCOMMODATIONS & AMENITIES
The facility offers 94 adult residential beds, and the one surveyed by Best-rehabs.com at the time of this writing gave the facility five out of five stars for its accommodations and amenities.
WHAT ALUMNI SAY
Best-rehabs.com has not yet received reviews from Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan alumni; however, third-party sources revealed mixed feedback.
On Google, the facility earned two out of five stars from four reviews at the time of this writing. Three of the four reviewers left minimum one-star reviews. Three of the reviews, including the one positive review, mentioned that this facility utilizes solitary confinement. In an anonymous review, one alum wrote: “Donuts for breakfast, no toilet seats, people are there for years what is wrong with people.”
WHAT FRIENDS & FAMILY SAY
The one loved one surveyed by Best-rehabs.com to date gave CMHIFL a mixed review. For strengths, they awarded the facility five out of five stars for its treatment effectiveness, its exercise and leisure provisions, its counseling options, its level of staff support, and its family involvement.
The anonymous parent, whose son attended the facility, also noted that they were “so overwhelmed with all the people needing their services….the actual level of care [my son] needed wasn’t available, it was full, so they put him on with what they called maximum setting. They have great care if you are put where you need.”
FINANCING
According to CMHIFL’s website, the hospital accepts Medicaid, Medicare, and some private insurance. Fees are also assessed on a sliding scale which supports clients with limited or no ability to pay.
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