People that have received treatment and services at Colorado Recovery and their families recognize the success of the unique approach to working with adults diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic disorders.Thank you for all your help and insightful treatment for our son. For the last year he has been so precarious, his future on hold, even his present in doubt. We searched many places but Colorado Recovery just resounded with common sense, accessibility and a commitment to what works. My ex-wife and I have seen numerous examples of our son’s really improved state. He is much happier again, out of the clouds of medication and sensing his possibilities like never before. I really believe whatever experience you have brought to Colorado Recovery, it has been a perfect fit for a young man like our son, and the DBT work has been a key piece of that. Thank you for all your commitment and your unflagging desire to help him help himself. Your efforts are often in my thoughts so I thought I would let you know. It is such a joy writing this testimonial. My daughter has regained her life as a result of the care received from Dr Warner and his team at Colorado Recovery and Balsam House. From diagnosis to careful monitoring of medication in a safe and nurturing place, she has made great strides in recovering from her illness. With great thanks. I’d hate to think where my 21-year old son would be if it weren’t for Dr. Warner and Colorado Recovery. My family and I are finally at peace with my son’s schizophrenia. I firmly believe that Dr. Warner, with his exceptional staff, saved my son. He has a life and is on the road towards recovery – something I thought was impossible because he was so severely ill. My son is now able to do the normal, everyday things that we take for granted. Dr. Warner is truly a crusader in the advocacy for the mentally ill. Thank you Dr. Warner and Colorado Recovery. Below is a short testimonial regarding my stay at Balsam House. It only scratches the surface of how I feel about my experience. I am thankful for all your help and think very highly of Dr. Warner and his staff. Balsam House provided me a nurturing home-like setting where Dr. Warner along with his caring and highly skilled staff helped me on a pathway to wellness. Additionally, there was a variety of group classes that were engaging and enjoyable. I am very grateful for my improvement while I was at Balsam House and know it is responsible for my better health. Imagine yourself a successful college student with a bright future ahead of you, and on the day of finals you mentally collapse. The next 3½ years you are mentally challenged daily and no state or county program will provide you any help. You can’t leave your parents’ home and you avoid friends and relatives. Then one New Year’s Eve you wind up in a hospital with a belief there is no hope. This all changed when we learned about the Colorado Recovery program! The founder, Dr. Warner, rescued our son that New Year’s Day and promised him he would try to return him to the person he was 5 years ago. Our son tells everyone Dr. Warner and the Balsam House saved his life. He not only returned him to the person his was 5 years ago, but to the gymnastics athlete he was 7 years ago! What’s more, the program helped him find an internship position in the music industry, which he loves. It isn’t just the medication that made the difference, it’s the entire program and the most incredible support program designed by Colorado Recovery. The focus on working with our son to socialize again, develop confidence, hike, and implement survival skills like cooking, scheduling, and laundry made the difference. I am the mother of a young man who has endured significant life adjustment difficulties and suffering due to serious mental illness and substance abuse. Balsam House is the only treatment program that has helped him realize success and given him hope. Sadly few programs are truly able to deal with the “whole person” and treat dual diagnosis patients. For the first time, my son’s psychiatric needs have been effectively treated and medicated while his addictions have been simultaneously addressed. Dr. Warner is an exceptionally gifted, creative psychiatrist who has developed a sophisticated program to treat and integrate people with serious mental illness into society. Balsam House has helped him develop the self-control necessary to understand and manage his medical, mental, physical and emotional needs. Their approach includes a supportive community with a family-like atmosphere; Balsam House clients always know that they have a safe haven of support, treatment and acceptance. Following inpatient treatment, my son received intensive outpatient support including management of medications, therapy, vocational counseling and the support needed to integrate into society. I feel so grateful to Dr. Warner and to the Balsam House staff!! "Dr. Richard Warner is a hero in the fight for treatment of people with severe and persistent mental illness; he is, indeed, a champion in that fight. I speak, first and foremost, as the father of a son who was given back to his mother and me by Dr. Warner. The medical profession seemed to have given up on our son because of his physical and mental problems. He ultimately became bedridden with a gastric feeding tube. Today our son is employed and back in graduate school. Of course others helped, but it was clearly Dr. Warner's understanding and leadership that produced what family and friends now refer to as “a miracle.” Other members of the mental health and psychiatric communities recognize Dr. Warner and Colorado Recovery as leaders in the treatment and rehabilitation of adults diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. "I worked with Dr. Warner, talking to some 1,000 high school students and citizens, helped train the police departments of three cities about stigma ... and talked at the criminal justice center and the Rotary Club ... just to name a few. "I have known Dr. Warner since 1986, although I knew his work long before knowing him personally. The importance of his innovative contributions to the field of mental health cannot be overstated. He is one of the most important voices in progressive community psychiatry internationally, leading by his example as a practicing psychiatrist and by his work in theory and research. "Dick has had a major international impact on effective ways to treat the mentally ill in community settings. Cedar House, a 15-bed residential facility for the effective treatment of acutely mentally ill patients in the community, which I understand now bears Dr. Warner’s name, has become a national and international model for the effective treatment of acutely ill psychiatric patients." "The source of energy for Dick’s monumental body of work is his compassion and dedication toward those with major mental illness. This compassion, in combination with his abundant energy, creativity, and lively intelligence, has created community values and resources that previously had not existed in the amount or forms that he was able to bring about. Jamie Emery, MA, Jeffery Fortuna, MA, Charles Knapp, MA, Windhorse Community Services Inc, Boulder Colorado. "Long before “recovery” became a recognized goal of mental health treatment, Dr. Warner became a champion of employment opportunities being offered as part of a comprehensive community mental health approach to treating major mental illness." |
"Dr. Warner provided most of the philosophy, vision, and design for the Center’s most effective treatment and recovery programs, including: -Cedar House (now Warner House), an innovative, intensive residential treatment home for acutely ill patients as an alternative to hospitalization. In 1978 when this program began it was one of the first of its kind and has been replicated in other places in Colorado and elsewhere. -Vocational rehabilitation programs that help people with major mental illness acquire job readiness and job retention skills. Much of Dr. Warner’s research and practice has been based on the fact that employment and integration in the community are a major part of people’s recovery helping them to be independent and have higher self esteem. -A local program to combat the stigma of mental illness that included leaders in the community and people with mental illness. They provided training for law enforcement officers and members of the legal profession. Dick’s philosophy of engaging clients as collaborators in their own treatment; respecting their dignity; emphasizing their individual strengths; and integrating them into the community permeated through the staff in all of these programs and was fundamental to their success." |