Task force focusing on homelessness, suicide

LOVELAND» Members of a task force convened last week to identify the “top problems facing Loveland” and presented the City Council with some ways the city can address suicide, homelessness and opioid addiction.

Convened by Councilor Steve Olson, the team of about 25 private, nonprofit and governmental organizations discussed what’s being done to address these issues and gaps in those services.

The city of Loveland can help educate the public about the realities of opioid addiction by publicly “busting” myths about it, said Summitstone Health Partners CEO Michael Allen. Additionally, the city could encourage its staff members to complete training on mental health first aid, promote a drug takeback program yearround and add the overdose drug naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, to emergency defibrillator kits across the city.

“This is really about saving lives,” Allen said.

Glorie Magrum, executive director of the House of Neighborly Service nonprofit, said the city could help fill gaps in care for those the existing system does not serve as well — single women.

If a woman is with children, the family can qualify for HNS’S Angel House program; if she’s alone, her only shelter option is inclement weather shelters open between November and March, Magrum said.

Task force members received 12 responses to their survey this month of homeless women’s wellbeing, and were told 43 percent had been beaten up, 29 percent were sexually assaulted and 29 percent had had “survival sex” to stay safe. Most would use a safe shelter if it was provided.

“We want to focus on keeping women safe and alive,” Magrum said.

She said the members of the task force who discussed homelessness wanted to ask the council if the city could partner with HNS or the 137 Homeless Connection shelter to specifically address women in the underconstruction Homelessness Strategic Plan.

The city could also help by setting aside land it owns near 137 Connection for a shelter specifically for single women.

Adam Musielewicz, coalition director of Team Wellness and Prevention of Fort Collins, informed the council that Larimer County’s suicide rate is nearly twice the national average, and there are many ways the city can help improve all aspects of prevention, intervention and “postvention,” or how to handle the aftermath of a suicide.

The Mental Health Matters initiative, which is the effort behind the November countywide ballot issue for a 0.25 percent sales tax to build and staff a treatment and detox facility between Fort Collins and Loveland and improve access to crisis services, will help, Musielewicz said. But there is still more the city can do.

The city of Loveland can help assist with communicating information about services, he said. The city could create a joint community health body with the town of Berthoud to make recommendations on service coordination, and break down the stigma around suicide by talking about it openly.

All city staff members should be trained in mental health first aid to help bust myths about suicide and break stigma, Musielewicz said.