{"id":151236,"date":"2025-09-17T21:19:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151236\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T21:19:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:19:22","slug":"colorado-citys-new-program-aims-to-support-service-workers-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151236\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado city’s new program aims to support service workers’ mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living and working in Colorado’s mountain towns comes with its own set of challenges — high costs, long hours and limited access to mental health resources. A local nonprofit CBS Colorado spoke to is trying to change that.<\/p>\n

Synergy in the Service Industry (SITSI<\/a>) just received a $15,000 grant\u00a0from the LOR Foundation<\/a> to bring mental health training and peer recovery coaching directly to restaurants and bars in Chaffee County.<\/p>\n

“We know burnout is high, and housing and pay are constant issues,” said Cassie Stauch, the SITSI board president . “This lets us meet people where they are at work and start real conversations about mental health.”<\/p>\n

The group is launching a one-hour class called\u00a0“Check Please” to help food and beverage workers recognize stress, substance misuse and how to get help. SITSI also offers six free therapy sessions and connects workers with longer-term insurance options.<\/p>\n

\"high-side-bar-and-grill-in-salida.jpg<\/p>\n

High Side! Bar & Grill in Salida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBS<\/p>\n

Hallie Whittington, co-owner of High Side! Bar and Grill, said her staff often falls into a gap where they make too much for Medicaid but can’t afford private insurance. She’s used Synergy’s services herself and said it made a big difference.<\/p>\n

“There’s not always support in small towns,” Whittington said. “Having someone point you in the right direction helps more than people realize.”<\/p>\n

The program also partners with Sagebrush Recovery<\/a> to provide peer coaching. Founder Carrie Elliott said it’s about breaking stigma in a community where recovery can still feel like a secret.<\/p>\n

“People still whisper about being in recovery, about wanting to even be in recovery,” Elliot said. “There’s access to maybe a couple different types of 12-step meetings, but there’s not much going on, and not much of that same pride that you find in the larger cities is substance abuse.”<\/p>\n

According to the LOR Foundation, more than 20% of rural Americans live with mental illness, and more than 60% live in areas with a shortage of mental health providers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The LOR Foundation is funding 26 projects (including this one) across the Mountain states, all focused on locally driven solutions for mental health to the tune of $500,000. Bill Jaeger, strategic initiatives officer at the LOR Foundation, said it’s best to try new things, and support people who know what the potential solutions are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We don’t have the solutions, people in the community do,” Jaeger said. “If we can be a resource, to be sort of wind in the sails as folks take these challenges on, we know that those good ideas are going to come from those places where the moment is happening.”<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

Spencer Wilson<\/a><\/p>\n

Your Reporter Spencer Wilson specializes in coverage of news in Colorado’s mountains. Share you story ideas with him by sending an email to yourreporter@cbs.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living and working in Colorado’s mountain towns comes with its own set of challenges — high costs, long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-151236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}