As Colorado mountain communities grapple with mental and behavioral health issues, many are getting involved with a project to share data between resort areas across the Rocky Mountain West.
Despite picturesque surroundings and abundant recreation, mountain resort communities have long struggled with issues of mental and behavioral health, including high rates of loneliness, substance use and suicide. This is sometimes known as the “paradise paradox.”
Since 2020, the Katz-Amsterdam Foundation — founded by Vail Resorts CEO Robert Katz and his late wife Elana Amsterdam — has supported a public health survey that quantifies mental and behavioral health indicators across mountain resort communities. The survey results are published in an online dashboard.
There are now 12 mountain communities involved in the effort. Steamboat Springs just finished their first round of the survey, while Winter Park is launching its inaugural survey. In Colorado, Summit and Eagle counties, Aspen, Crested Butte and Telluride have also been involved with the project. Jackson, Wyoming; North Tahoe, California; Sun Valley, Idaho; Big Sky, Montana and Park City, Utah all contribute as well.
“We really heard from communities that this was a critical issue,” said Beth Ganz, the executive director of the Katz-Amsterdam Foundation. “Thinking back a decade ago, there wasn’t as much focus and attention on these issues. So, Rob and Elana felt it was really important to show up as a good partner to mountain communities.”
In coordination with local communities, Ganz said the Katz-Amsterdam Foundation set out to understand the challenges — like “party cultures,” attitudes and stigmas around mental healthcare, provider capacity and affordability of care — that these mountain resort communities share and identified 14 categories of indicators to track.
Local mental health officials say the dataset has allowed them to identify specific issues that need to be addressed in their communities, chart progress over time and show the impact of taxpayer dollars spent on mental health resources.
Kellyn Ender, the executive director of Building Hope Summit County, said in an email that the data shows how far the community has come with mental health issues. The data shows that in Summit County, compared to 2020, around two-thirds fewer residents go without care and more believe it is easier to talk about mental health in 2026.
“Having data is essential to programming and acknowledging where we have come from as a community,” Ender said. “We have made significant improvements in the mental health system in Summit County, in large part due to the Strong Future funding, and this data shows the picture of where we are doing better and where we still need more attention as a community.”
In Summit County, a significant portion of mental health services are supported through a 2018 ballot measure known as Strong Future.
Ender shared that when the data highlighted the rising need for mental health services for men, it led the nonprofit to launch “Dude Talk Dinners” and “Guys’ Nights.”
The mountain communities involved in the Katz-Amsterdam Foundation’s network aren’t just sharing data — they’re sharing ideas.
Ender said data from the program also helped inform Summit County’s “Booze Less, Do More” campaign, which encouraged people to be thoughtful about their alcohol consumption. Other communities with high substance use rates have since adopted their own versions of the campaign, she said.
In the Steamboat Springs area, The Health Partnership Executive Director Brittney Wilburn said that while the community is still working to process its first year of data, she expects that getting involved with the network will help track progress on work already being done in the community, while continuing to identify areas that need to be addressed.
“Resort communities have a unique culture — play hard, party hard,” Wilburn said. “People are lonely and don’t know where to turn when they need support. These challenges are where future opportunities lie and we are excited to move the needle in these areas over the next few years.”
While mountain communities have made progress on mental health issues in recent years, those involved with the Katz-Amsterdam Foundation agreed that there is still a lot of work to be done and continued collaboration is key.
“Shared data creates shared learning, which is essential for behavioral health,” said Katz in a statement. “After a decade of working alongside mountain community leaders, we’ve seen firsthand how sustained partnerships lead to sustained results. This dashboard is one example of how leaders can learn from one another to better understand their communities and respond more effectively to behavioral health needs.”