State senator urges action on gaps in youth mental-health placements and describes school pilot

Sen. Sonia Hopkins Lewis (Senate District 17) told Longmont leaders the state is seeing a growing gap when children are removed from homes because of acute mental-health needs: hospitals are becoming de facto caretakers because behavioral-health placement options are limited.

Hopkins Lewis said the shortage can result in children staying days or months in hospital settings while social services work to find placements. She described frustration from hospitals and the Department of Human Services when ‘‘there’s nowhere to put the child,’’ leaving clinical staff in extended custody roles rather than in treatment roles.

To address early intervention, Hopkins Lewis described a school-based pilot the team ran this past year: a response team placed inside schools that logged about 125 touchpoints across 18 different schools over roughly a 45-day window. The goal, she said, was to keep students in school while connecting them to outside mental-health resources so they do not enter hospital or juvenile systems.

Local officials asked how the pilot's results will be tracked. Hopkins Lewis said staff already track each interaction, how complaints are received, and case follow-up, and that coordination involves probation and court liaisons when necessary. She said she did not yet have outcome data showing how many students avoided hospitalization and offered to follow up with agency psychologists for details.

Hopkins Lewis also urged Longmont to consider local actions, including possible council resolutions, to press state offices — she suggested the Attorney General’s involvement could help move legislative changes on certification and other systemic issues. She emphasized that while she does not carry some judiciary bills herself, legislative champions in relevant committees will be needed to make durable changes.

The session closed with officials thanking the senator for the briefing and asking staff to return with more data on the pilot’s outcomes and on state-level options for acting on placement gaps.