New Mental Health Hospital Opens in Edwards, Restoring Care on Colorado’s Western Slope
Colorado once again has psychiatric beds available west of the Front Range after Vail Health opened a new inpatient facility last week. Until recently, West Springs Hospital in Grand Junction was the only option for inpatient psychiatric treatment between metro Denver and Salt Lake City. The hospital closed in early March because of financial difficulties, though its detoxification facility and outpatient clinic remained open.
Precourt Healing Center, which sits on a campus in Edwards that also houses outpatient mental health providers and community organizations working with youth, accepted its first patients on May 5. Vail Health designed Precourt to treat patients holistically, with healthy meals, exercise options, and complementary therapies, such as art and music, as well as traditional one-on-one or group therapy, said Dr. Teresa Haynes, director of inpatient behavioral health.
The goal is to allow people to use different parts of their brains to work through their crises, and to give them some tools to manage their mental health when they go home, said Dr. Haynes. “Individuals who are in this level of crisis… don’t necessarily want to talk about their story all day, every day.”
The new facility also uses remote monitoring technology to avoid disrupting patients’ sleep to check that they’re safe overnight without invading their privacy.
