SUMMIT COUNTY FAMILY TURNS GRIEF INTO WAY TO HELP
Patti Casey, along with her husband, Tim Casey, ran a successful Breckenridge real estate marketing firm whose portfolio included the $32.5 million sale of the fabled Caribou Ranch where stars recorded albums in the 1970s.
She also volunteered with multiple Summit County nonprofits and parent-teacher associations and served food every year at the Thanksgiving community dinner. She did it all while raising two daughters.
So her January 2016 death sent shock waves through Summit County, because no one expected a woman who was known as St. Patti to kill herself. But the Casey family had kept secret her lifelong struggle with depression and alcoholism.
“My mom was an amazing woman,” said her daughter Betsy Casey. “That was what was difficult to the outside community. We can’t tell you how many people came up to us at the funeral and said, ‘We didn’t know anything was wrong.’ We said, ‘Yeah, I know.’
“People actually called her St. Patti. She was so kind and giving. She was the first person to make a casserole when you broke your leg. But she really struggled to reach out and let people know she wasn’t OK.”
After her death, the Casey family decided they no longer would hide their secret. At the funeral, they were open and honest about the years of struggle and the impact it had on each of them.
“It’s happening in Summit County and no one is talking about it,” Betsy Casey said.
Betsy Casey shared what it was like to be a 7-year-old and know that her mother was drinking too much. She talked about her mother’s electroconvulsive therapy and her own
alcohol addiction as an adult. Betsy Casey, 33, is in recovery.
“There was dysfunction, but it doesn’t mean my parents weren’t amazing and loving,” Betsy Casey said. “The rest of the community thought, ‘Oh, that family is perfect.’ ”
The response from the community made the Casey family realize they never really had been alone. Others confessed to struggling with the same issues.
When the family started looking into mental health issues and suicide, the Caseys discovered that Summit County’s suicide rate was three times the national average in a state that has one of the highest suicide rates in the country and that mental health lockups in the county jail had skyrocketed in recent years.
“We were trending the wrong way in the last two or three years,” said Gini Bradley, a Summit County nonprofit consultant who worked with the Casey family to create the Patti Casey Memorial Fund. The fund quickly raised $150,000, Betsy Casey said. That’s when the family realized they were on to something.
“At the time, we had no idea what we would do,” she said. “My mom was the catalyst. She was the tipping point, but people were ready to talk about it and change.”
The family used the money to create Building Hope, a nonprofit that focuses on mental health awareness and treatment. The nonprofit opened in June 2016, six months after Patti Casey’s death.
With Bradley’s help, the family pulled together multiple agencies and community leaders — including Sheriff Jamie Fitzsimons, the local Family and Intercultural Resource Center, The Summit Foundation, Mind Springs Health, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center and the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The group worked together to create programs that would work in Summit County, where the ski industry and its culture bring unique challenges.
“We have typically rural resources with a more urban population,” Bradley said. “The norms and values of the community can be hard to get ahold of because the population fluctuates. People come and go.”
Young people flock to Breckenridge, Frisco, Keystone and other resort areas to “live the dream,” Bradley said.
“There’s a little bit of a lack of responsibility that goes with that,” she said. “We have a fairly vulnerable population of young people and tourists who see us as Colorado’s playground.”
The party lifestyle follows, and mental health issues can surface along with substance abuse. And, when a crisis hits, those people are a long way away from family and their traditional support networks.
The situation can be isolating, said Tamara Drangstveit, executive director of the Family & Intercultural Resource Center, which accepted Building Hope as one of its programs. On top of those issues, Summit County is an expensive place to live, which adds to stress and, in turn, fuels anxiety and depression.
“We try to mitigate stressors before we get to a crisis,” Drangstveit said. “It wasn’t just the suicides we were worried about.”
Then there is the Spanishspeaking population, which can fluctuate between 15 and 30 percent of the county’s nearly 30,000 residents depending on the season. The group knew they needed to be able to provide their services in a second language.
They recruited a group of Latinas to conduct outreach and offer suggestions.
All of it has been a learning experience as they figured out what worked in Summit County and what didn’t, several involved said.
For example, they hosted a suicide prevention event for the Latino community, and one person showed up. They recast the title and tried again by hosting a breakfast with a bilingual therapist to talk about self esteem. Six people returned an RSVP, but on the morning of the breakfast, 54 people showed up, Drangstveit said.
Since June 2016, 776 people have attended Building Hope’s events such as art and cooking classes, yoga and outdoors activities that are aimed at decreasing isolation and steering people toward available resources. Another 276 people have attended training on how to respond to a mental health crisis and help their loved ones, and the staff has talked to more than 900 people about Building Hope and the services it offers, according to data provided by the program.
“Each one of these things is what we’d want to see happening in any community,” said Betty Sarber, president of NAMI High Country Colorado. “With all of these things, I say, ‘Keep going. Keep going.’ "
Building Hope also has launched a marketing campaign to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness in Summit County by featuring well-known residents who have overcome mental health struggles. It ran radio and newspaper ads and placed posters in public places such as the library.
In July, Building Hope started offering “scholarships” to residents who didn’t have insurance or cash to pay for therapy. So far, 70 people have received vouchers that are accepted by 25 local private therapists.
Donna Speyer, a 54-year-old gate agent at Breckenridge resort, called on Building Hope after moving to town with her husband and children in September. Speyer has a traumatic brain injury caused 10 years ago when a steel beam fell on her head while she was working in construction.
The injury causes severe bouts of anxiety and depression. Her family was suffering. But Building Hope gave her a voucher for private sessions with a therapist. She has been five times and is learning to cope when the anxiety creeps up. Now, she is able to work, and her family life is improving.
“It’s been a really great thing for my family,” Speyer said. “Building Hope, the Summit Foundation and FIRC — they’re there for families in crisis. They do everything they can to assist us.”
There is evidence the work is making a difference.
The county’s efforts combined with a coming change in state law that prohibits sheriffs from putting people in jail just because they’re mentally ill has eliminated mental health lockups in the Summit County jail, Fitzsimons said. He’s also working with police departments in the county to provide crisis intervention training for all deputies and officers.
“Mental health was stressing the staff out so much,” Fitzsimons said.
St. Anthony and Mind Springs are building a new “crisis stabilization unit” that will provide temporary housing and counseling for people in the throes of a crisis. That means people will have a place to get help instead of driving to Denver or Grand Junction for immediate in-patient treatment.
The number of suicides dropped to four in 2017, a 10-year low. There had been 13, including Patti Casey’s, in 2016, Betsy Casey said.
It’s too early to claim victory, Betsy Casey said. One year’s numbers are not a trend. But she and the others involved feel good about the direction Summit County is headed when it comes to mental health. They hope other communities use Summit County as example and find ways to come together to find answers to local problems.
And the Casey family feels it is turning a tragedy into something good.
“We really just wanted to own it and be truthful,” Betsy Casey said. “It was coming from a lifetime of secrets. We all just collectively decided we didn’t want to do it anymore. Enough people are struggling with it. It’s time to be open and talk about it.”
“My mom was an amazing woman. That was what was difficult to the outside community. We can’t tell you how many people came up to us at the funeral and said, ‘We didn’t know anything was wrong.’ We said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ ” Betsy Casey
“We have typically rural resources with a more urban population. The norms and values of the community can be hard to get a hold of because the population fluctuates. People come and go.” Gini Bradley, a Summit County nonprofit consultant