Child & Family Services

Right Start for Infant Mental Health 

Right Start for Infant Mental Health is a mental health program for pregnant women and families with a child ages birth to five years. We provide help when there are concerns about a child’s development or when parenting becomes difficult. This program is designed to help parents in their relationships with their babies or young children.

Who can receive this service?

Any family with a child between the ages of birth to five years who resides in Denver County can receive this service if any of the following are true:

• You think your baby is unusually quiet or uninterested in you
• You are concerned about your baby's sleeping or feeding
• You think your baby is fussy or cries too much
• You are worried about your young child’s temper tantrums or aggressive behavior
• You have a young child that is often sad or keeps to him/herself
• You feel exhausted or overwhelmed by the demands of parenting

We also work with pregnant women who are nervous about parenthood or would like extra support in raising their child.

For more information, please call 303.504.6605.

H.I.K.E.

The H.I.K.E. Project (Health, Intervention,
Knowledge, Education) provides care to youth ages 16 to 24 who have co-occurring disorders and/or are at risk for HIV/AIDS. This highly collaborative team is made up of staff from the Mental Health Center of Denver, Urban Peak and The Council on Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Services are provided at Urban Peak’s “The Spot” and at other community partners such as the Contemporary Learning Academy and Mile High Youth Corps.

H.I.K.E. provides screening for mental health and substance abuse, brief intervention, Street Smart groups, and one-on-one and group therapy. Rapid testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections is available at “The Spot.” H.I.K.E. has connections to supported employment and education as well as housing.

In-Home Service

Intensive In-Home Family Therapy Services are designed to serve children and youth with serious emotional disturbances or serious disruptive or delinquent behavior who are at risk of out-of-home placement, juvenile detention or hospitalization. The program also serves children and youth who are transitioning from a higher level of care back into the community.

Therapy may include individual, family, couple, play and group therapy. Other services offered include parenting skills training, crisis management support, intensive case management, care coordination and access to outpatient medication man program involves approximately three to ten hours per week of direct contact with the child, family and system supports across a period of six months or less. These services are available in both English and Spanish.

For more information on our In-Home Services, please call 303.504.1525.

Outpatient Services

Our Child and Family Outpatient Clinics serve children ages three to 18 and their families. Clinicians working with our families have multiple areas of expertise, but all have targeted training in providing trauma-informed care within the community. We offer two clinics in the Denver area at 1405 N Federal Blvd and 4141 E Dickenson Place. 

Services include:

• Intake, assessment and evaluation
• Individual, family and group therapy
• Medication evaluations and management, as needed
• Crisis intervention case management
• Care coordination and referrals
• Youth transition to adulthood

For more information, please call 303.504.6500.

 Project RISE (Resilience, Independence, Strength, Empowerment)

Project RISE is a trauma treatment project that is dedicated to serving Denver youth ages 11 to 17 who have experienced severe trauma in their lives, who are gang-involved, or at risk of gang involvement. Trauma treatment groups are conducted in the school and community settings by highly qualified, licensed mental health therapists, who are sensitive to the unique cultural needs of the participants. Master’s level students from local universities may also help co-lead trauma treatment groups.

Our middle school-based trauma treatment groups are designed to reduce symptoms related to trauma, build resilience and increase parent and peer support amongst at-risk middle school students.

Our high school and community-based treatment groups are designed to enhance resilience through problem-solving, self-regulatory skills, communication and coping skills for youth who may currently be experiencing high levels of stress.

For more information, please call 303.504.6608.

 Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Services

Play Project

The Play Project places early childhood mental health consultants in learning centers to equip early child care professionals and parents with the skills and techniques needed to support healthy social and emotional development in young children. 

Children who participate with the Play Project range from six weeks to six years old. Consultants work to reduce behavioral concerns and prevent expulsions from care centers while improving school readiness and academic success.

Through the Play Project, the Mental Health Center is currently partnering with Warren Village, Family Star Montessori and the Hope Center to provide mental health consultaion. The program is a grant funded project of the Colorado Health Foundation. For more information, please call 303.504.1554.

Early Childhood Specialist Services

Our Early Childhood Specialist is available to provide infant/preschool mental health consultation services to child care centers located in Denver county. These consultations services are helpful when providers have mental health concerns about particular children ages birth to five or are struggling to manage defiant, aggressive or oppositional behavior within the child care center. The consultant will work collaboratively with the Center Director, child care staff, parent(s) and the child to offer helpful behavior management strategies and a refferal to mental health services, in needed. For more information, please call 303.504.6605.

School-based Services

The Mental Health Center of Denver’s School-Based Program has on-site mental health therapists in more than 15 Denver Public Schools providing intervention and treatment to support students’ positive social and emotional development.

Our school-based services include:

• Assessments and evaluations to identify specific problems, strengths and resources
• Individual, family and group therapy
• Medication evaluation and management
• Case management and crisis intervention

Our school based services are available to all students and are free of charge and confidential. We encourage parental involvement. Parents must be notified by school personnel prior to clinicians seeing youth under 15 years of age. Please contact the school for information on the referral process. To learn about one of our school school therapists, click here. 

Child & Family Hospital Liaison 

As a liaison between the Mental Health Center of Denver and local hospitals, the hospital liaison coordinates care and support discharge planning for consumers currently enrolled in our services. The liaison supports the primary therapist and insures a smooth transition from the hospital. For new referrals to Child and Family services, the liason can conduct an intake assesment at the hospital when notified three days or more prior to discharge. For more information, please call 303.999.9041.

Youth Justice Mental Health

Gilliam Youth Services Center Mental Health Specialist

Our Mental Health Specialist provides support to youth detained at Gilliam Youth Services Center. Our Specialist offers a wide range of services including crisis intervention, brief mental health screening/assessment/intervention, consultation, court-ordered mental health screenings, as well as coordination of access to services in the community upon release.

Youth Justice Therapist

Housed out of Denver Juvenile Probation, the Youth Justice Therapist provides mental health services to all youth (ages 10+) who are at-risk or are involved in the juvenile justice legal system (probation, diversion, etc.). The Youth Justice Therapist also provides assessment and diagnostic services, consultation, and ongoing outpatient mental health treatment services on a voluntary basis. Partially funded through Senate Bill 97, no-cost services are available to those without insurance or other payer sources.

RISE Therapist

A RISE (Resilience, Independence, Strength and Endurance) therapist is available at the Denver Youth Services Center at the Denver Probation building to provide services to youth ages 10-17 who are involved in or at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system. Services are provided to the youth and their families at the Denver Youth Services Center or at a convenient location in the community. Closely aligned with the Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver (GRID), the RISE therapist assesses each referred child for appropriate level of services with a primary focus on childhood traumatic stress. For more information, please contact 303.504.6554.

Voz y Corazon

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults in Colorado. Hispanic high school students report a higher percentage of serious attempts than their peers.

The Voz y Corazon suicide prevention program at the Mental Health Center of Denver was developed to provide free, community-based, culturally sensitive, mentoring and suicide prevention services to teens and their families.  Designed by teens for teens with three primary goals:

• To provide teens and adults with suicide prevention education and awareness
• Increase access to mentors
• Increase access to mental health services and treatment

The mission of Voz y Corazon is to prevent suicide by developing a caring circle of friends that are available to teens when they need to express their feelings, feels connected, strengthen their identity, celebrate life, gain hope and value culture. 

A New Day Family Resource Center

A New Day Family Resource Center helps
children and their families bridge the gap in meeting their basic needs while working towards self-empowerment and healthy life choices.

The resource center is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday and currently offers basic resources including:

• Hygiene provisions
• Clothing
• Toys
• General household items and furniture

The  food bank is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays.

Access to the resource center is available to our clients who have been referred by one of our clinicians and who have attended an orientation to the facility.

The resource center has a donation drop-off time from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays; however, we welcome scheduled donations at other times and will also gladly arrange for pickup (please contact 303.504.1575).

Services at the Resource Center are available in both English and Spanish.

Parent & Caregiver Support

The Mental Health Center of Denver offers individual therapy to parents, guardians, and primary caregivers of children who are using our services. Individualized support is available when treatment is vital to the stability of the family and the resiliency of the child.

These services are offered across a range of intensity levels and have flexibility in terms of service delivery from a traditional outpatient model to in-home and community support.

For more information, please call 303.504.1525. 

Intensive Day Treatment Program

The Mental Health Center of Denver’s Intensive Day Treatment Program provides mental health treatment and educational services to children with emotional or behavioral disorders that interfere with their ability to be successful in a traditional public school setting. The Day Treatment staff uses a team approach to build therapeutic relationships with children ages six to fourteen and their families to help each child reach their highest level of success. The program's educational curriculum meets Colorado standards and is licensed and regulated by the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Colorado Department of Education.

Believing that every child has individual strengths and the capacity to learn the skills necessary for recovery and transition, our Intensive Day Treatment uses research-based treatment models that emphasize character development, learning new social skills and appropriate ways to express feelings. On average, students stay between four and six months before transitioning back to a regular classroom. Additional Intensive Day Treatment services include:

• Weekly individual therapy
• Daily group therapy
• Individualized education services
• Monthly family therapy
• Medication appointments, if needed
• Parenting support, resources and education
• Coordination of services with other professionals and agencies

Intensive Case Management

Case management services are provided on a referral basis as an additional
level of support for those children and their families currently receiving clinical services from other Mental Health Center of Denver programs. 

Case management provides:

• Ongoing individualized needs assessment
• Coordination of care
• Referral/linkage to community resources 
• Monitoring of the care plan implementation

Case management also provides community support interventions promoting symptom stability while improving coping skills, increasing socialization, and enhancing successful functioning in the community. Services are available in both English and Spanish.

For more information, please contact 303.504.1576.