I felt that in any direction I looked The people's
would be better off without me, Lori Gill remembers
the moment back in 1997 when she says she wanted to die.
I had a rope and up drives my daughter up the drive
and it was enough for me to just kind of Mhm during the
headlights thing and go, oh my gosh, that was the
turning point. That was the turning point. Until that
moment, Gill had been afraid to ask for help. Her
hometown of Marino colorado, two hours northeast of
Denver is a tiny farming Hamlet with less than 300
people and she was the high school history teacher. Yo
know, I thought jesus somebody thinks that I've got
some issues are they even gonna want me working with
their kids when it comes to mental and behavioral
health parts of colorado share the same problem as many
places in rural America not enough services to begin
with and when there are resistance to using them, I was
as an adult was embarrassed to go someplace in town
because who knows it was, I mean everybody's kind of
interconnected in colorado. Mental health care
facilities are mostly concentra in bigger cities and
harder to find for the roughly 720,000 people living i
rural areas where the need is just as great. 22
colorado counties don't have a single licensed
psychologist, alcohol and drug abuse is higher out here.
Kids and young adults in rural towns are twice as
likely to die by suicide last november Gil's sister in
law, Lori shot lost her 18 year old daughter. Ana she
radioed she was tough as they came for her size as anna
struggled with mental health. Her family struggled to
get her help, but it was like waiting list after
waiting list. And finally we made the determination to
reach out farther in the geographic area. Just got his
clear up to boulder. So for us to get any help for
honor for mental health reasons in a timely manner. We
had to travel 2.5 hours one way, 2.5 hours back plus
for counseling time. It was a hard thing to swallow in
the capacity that rural America shouldn't be forgotten
that it's a wonderful place to raise Children but
resources on the professional side on the professional
side are not where they need to be. The state of
Colorado is trying to fix that. Hiring more addiction
and behavioral health counselors for remote areas
including native american and latin communities, public
service announcements urge peop to get help. I always
thought my dad would teach my kids how to ride. I want
people to know that it's okay to not be okay. Lori
Gill's son Gus was just a year old when his mom
attempted suicide today. He's working to reach farmers
and ranchers. I'm the fifth generation on the farm
actually. He says the hard work of caring for the crops
and cows. Sunup to sundown brings a special mix of
financial and mental stress. Is it lonely growing up
out here. You know, it certainly is for some folks. Gi
is now working with the Colorado Farm Bureau just this
year, they started offering vouchers that can be
exchanged for counseling sessions. It's anonymous and
free. There's this mentality th if That you need to
be strong enough to handle your own problems and to get
through those issues. And in reality one of the
strongest things folks can do is actually take that
step to seek help if they need it. And in a state where
half of all suicides involve a firearm, the search for
solutions now leads to gun stores. So that's a 13-01
technical shotgun Nathan Osbrach owns a small shop in
brush colorado. I can't guarantee if someone was
suicidal I'd pick up on it, but I think there's a
pretty good chance I would. Osbrach agreed to be
included on a map of places where anyone can
voluntarily hand over a gun, potentially keeping it
away from someone who may be suicidal. So I would just
store it just like you see all these other handguns in
boxes so far. He says no one has taken him up on it. If
someone was in a mental health crisis more than happy
to, to take the firearms for as long as I need to in
Rocky ford colorado about an hour east of pueblo Rocky
part family Health center. This is melissa. Can I help
you Doug Miller runs a medical clinic in a community
where he says the need for behavioral health serv
keeps growing. We've been screening everybody for
depression and anxiety. We also screened for loneliness
thanks to a federal grant. Miller recently hired a
professional counselor but conn face to face is
still tough. So most days unjust commonplace when he
wills me into an exam room, video chat is how Andrea
Larue sees patients during the pandemic colorado.
Lawmakers made telehealth visit much easier. I think
it is a game changer for a lot of our patients that
cannot otherwise get out. What would you like Laurie
Gill says finally opening up is what helped her get
treatment for depression and bipolar disorder. People
could live. It's so well and you can miss it these days.
Gill and her sister in law are channeling sadness into
fixing up the old Carnegie library building in the town
of Stirling. We bought it in april after we lost Tana
upstairs. They'll have a country store. These were on
his favorite books, so we had to have them downstairs,
A coffee shop mentally for us. We had to find an escape.
I always say that this building, you know, found us
when we needed it most. I was looking for something
that was to be full of happiness and a place for peopl
to go. And it's just a happy place, a place helping
them turn a page on grief and now write a brand new
chapter, Clayton Sandell, Newsy, Sterling, Colorado. No
matter where you are in the country, help is available.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24
hours seven days a week. The number is at the bottom of
your screen 802 738255.