Colorado Recovery’s New Independent Living Program

One of the main treatment goals at Colorado Recovery is to have patients achieve a certain degree of social independence.

Our recovery model is a holistic, patient-centered approach to mental healthcare. This model is based on the simple premise that it is possible to recover from a mental health condition. Not that long ago, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and similar severe mental health conditions were considered chronic and beyond the reach of any meaningful recovery.

“A central tenet of the recovery model is that empowerment of the user is important in achieving a good outcome in serious mental illness,” wrote the late Colorado Recovery founder Richard Warner in 2010. 

The recovery model counteracts feelings of disempowerment and worthlessness in the patient. Its key tenets—“optimism about recovery from schizophrenia, the importance of access to employment, and the value of empowerment of user/consumers in the recovery process—are supported by scientific research,” wrote Warner in 2009. “Attempts to reduce the internalized stigma of mental illness should enhance the recovery process.”

Dr. Warner distinguished between “complete [psychiatric] recovery” and “social recovery,” which he defined in functional terms: economic and residential independence with low social disruption. Two important components of that are employment and independent housing. 

A unique feature of our continuum of care allows clients to move to transitional housing and if they need more support they can move back to residential care at Balsam House for stabilization and then move back to transitional housing when ready. 

From Transition to Independence

If they are doing really well they can now move on to the independent living program. 

Bernadette Robinson is a life skills coach and transitional living coordinator at Colorado Recovery. “An assessment will be made by the treatment team to determine whether clients are ready for this level of care,” she says. “They would continue to be Colorado Recovery clients but may see a therapist only occasionally. One of the criteria is that they will continue to be involved in our organization in some way.”

The new service starts with one apartment: one unit with three bedrooms. The accommodations are being offered to Colorado Recovery clients ready for this level of care. “A life skills assessment will determine whether they have the ability to clean and cook for yourselves, figure out transportation, can take care of their personal hygiene,” explains Robinson. 

It’s a month-to-month lease allowing for maximum flexibility, so clients don’t have to commit to a whole year which may seem too overwhelming for them. “If patients run into problems down the line they can easily revert back to other levels of care like transitional living or even residential treatment if that is required,” says Robinson. “It would be an easy adjustment since they are already familiar with the Colorado Recovery system and its therapists.”

In fact, clients remain in the Colorado Recovery treatment orbit while in the independent living program—as long as they are working with a Colorado Recovery psychiatrist or therapist. It’s all part of our dynamic levels of care to support clients in the best way possible. 

“We are quite flexible depending on where the person is,” says Peggy Caspari, Colorado Recovery’s executive director. “This flexibility is really empowering clients which is our core philosophy. We want to do what’s in their best interest and meet them where they are in their recovery.”  

At Colorado Recovery it is our mission to help adults with serious mental health issues stabilize their illness, minimize symptoms, improve functioning and enhance each person’s social inclusion, quality of life, and sense of meaning in life.

If you have questions about our recovery model or our services to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and similar mental illnesses, call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

Microaggressions People with Schizophrenia Face on a Regular Basis

People unfamiliar with schizophrenia often make a number of misguided assumptions about this mental illness. These misconceptions can lead to hurtful microaggressions that people with schizophrenia encounter all too often.


Lisa Guardiola has been living with schizophrenia for 17 years. In a recent blog post for WebMD, she described how in her interactions, she “found that most people aren’t only surprised that I am living with schizophrenia, but that they don’t know what to say to me. As well-intended as they may be, some have asked questions or made statements to me that have been more harmful than good.”


The awkwardness of such encounters is typically based on a pervasive lack of knowledge about schizophrenia. In 2012, psychologist Patricia Owen looked at portrayals of schizophrenia in entertainment media and found that “one of the more prevalent stereotypes found in movies is the depiction of a character with a serious mental illness as dangerous and violent.” She wrote that “media analysts have criticized movies for associating schizophrenia with unpredictable and often violent behaviors.”  


In his book, The Environment of Schizophrenia, Colorado Recovery founder Richard Warner listed a number of widespread stigmatizing misconceptions about schizophrenia including


  • Nobody recovers from schizophrenia
  • Schizophrenia is untreatable
  • People with schizophrenia are usually violent or dangerous
  • Everything people with schizophrenia say is nonsense
  • People with schizophrenia are unable to make decisions about their lives
  • People with schizophrenia are unpredictable
  • People with schizophrenia are unable to work


The items on this list are very familiar to Guardiola. Among the microaggressions, she has encountered is the question “Do the voices you hear tell you to hurt people?” Such a query is very stigmatizing and offensive. “Unfortunately, there’s a misconception that people who live with schizophrenia are violent and that the voices they hear are all negative and homicidal,” she wrote. “In fact, not all people who have auditory hallucinations will hear the same thing. For some, their voices may tell jokes or make sounds that aren’t violent and can be quite comforting to the person experiencing the auditory hallucination. So to assume that every person who lives with schizophrenia hears negative voices is so wrong.”


Another stigmatizing but unfortunately common question to be avoided is “How many personalities do you have?” This very problematic “because many don’t understand that schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as split personality) are two different disorders,” explained Guardiola in her article.  While someone with schizophrenia may have a hard time distinguishing what is real and what is not, people with dissociative identity disorder have multiple, distinct personalities. 


Instead of asking pseudo-psychiatric questions or telling people “it’s all in your head!” it’s much more appropriate to treat people with a mental illness with courtesy and respect—just like other people. They are usually neither homicidal maniacs nor people with “special abilities.”  


As Guardiola wrote, many “people often have this romanticized perception that all those living with schizophrenia are creative. While some who live with this disorder are creative, this perception really feeds into the stereotype and detracts from their natural artistic qualities. For those living with schizophrenia who aren’t creative, it can make them feel as though they are lacking in their abilities. Creativity is not dependent on the fact that a person lives with this disorder.”


It also doesn’t make you someone who is “really awesome in bed,” another awful stereotype. “There’s the assumption that people, especially women, who live with schizophrenia are wild in a sexual way. People who have this diagnosis can and do have healthy and satisfying relationships, but that doesn’t mean that they are wild or overtly sexual just because they live with schizophrenia,” wrote Guardiola.  

 

The Warner treatment model at Colorado Recovery is based on the idea that people with schizophrenia can and do live very purposeful and fulfilling lives. Our treatment professionals empower their patients by giving them roads to be productive, to help them perceive a positive meaning in life and a sense of belonging that can significantly improve treatment outcomes. We offer a variety of vocational services to help clients with their short-term and long-term career goals, including job-seeking skills, career exploration, and resume creation.


The recovery model counteracts feelings of disempowerment and worthlessness, partially driven by stigmatizing prejudice prevalent in our society. “A central tenet of the recovery model is that empowerment of the user is important in achieving a good outcome in serious mental illness,” wrote Dr. Warner in 2010. “To understand why this may be so, it is important to appreciate that people with mental illness may feel disempowered, not only as a result of involuntary confinement or paternalistic treatment but also by their own acceptance of the stereotype of a person with mental illness. People who accept that they have mental illness may feel driven to conform to an image of incapacity and worthlessness, becoming more socially withdrawn and adopting a disabled role. As a result, their symptoms may persist and they may become dependent on treatment providers and others.” 


At Colorado Recovery it is our mission to help adults with serious mental health issues stabilize their illness, minimize symptoms, improve functioning and enhance each person’s social inclusion, quality of life, and sense of meaning in life.


If you have questions about our recovery model or our services to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and similar mental illnesses, call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

The Healing Power of Horses

In September, Colorado Recovery teamed up with the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center (CTRC) in Longmont—the oldest therapeutic riding center in the Centennial State which has been operating since 1980.

Equine-assisted therapy incorporates horses into the therapeutic process, offering a valuable additional service to Colorado Recovery clients. People engage in activities such as riding, grooming, feeding, and leading a horse while being supervised by a mental health professional.

Carrie Wells has been organizing the equine therapy group for Colorado Recovery since the group started in late summer. Wells holds an MS in applied counseling psychology and has a broad range of experience including 12 years of working with community mental health specifically focused on working with adults in a transitional residence who struggled with persistent mental illness. Wells is also a trained equine therapist which makes her the perfect liaison with CTRC.

Excursions to the riding center usually take three hours out of the day and although Wells does not conduct the sessions herself, observing clients with the horses yields valuable feedback for her.

If the horse reacted in a certain way, she can ask the client how that made them feel. “Putting the halter on, is that something that resonate with you in your life,” she may inquire. “It’s the kind of thing that I may key into, based on my own training as an equine therapist.”

It’s a valuable experience for clients to be a little bit out of their comfort zone and out in nature. “Horses are mirrors to people and you can observe a whole lot of stuff when you are working with those animals,” explains Wells.

On their first series of visits to CTRC in Longmont, Colorado Recovery clients got to watch the
herd and observe how the horses interact. Wells prompts her clients to decode the animals’ behavior: “Why do you think they are doing that?” she would ask them. “That’s always very interesting for the clients, to learn about the behavior of the horses. By the third visit, clients got to halter the horses, then learned how to groom a horse.”

Some clients are quickly at ease with all of these activities while others may take a little longer to get comfortable. “There’s a whole range of responses,” says Wells. “On later visits they got to lead the horses—we even created an obstacle course and led the horses through it.”

So far, there have only been a few occasions where people actually got to sit on a horse. Equine-assisted psychotherapy does not necessarily involve riding because the aim is to help clients learn about themselves and others, while processing or discussing feelings and behaviors. The goal is to help clients in social, emotional, cognitive, or behavioral ways.
Equine therapy has been a very successful addition to Colorado Recovery’s already broad offer. Our treatment program aims to empower adults with mental illness, and those who support them, with an unrelenting optimism for recovery, purposeful involvement in the community, and an enhanced sense of meaning in life.

Our treatment facility provides the services needed to address schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses which are specific to each individual. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

Why Keeping a Regular Schedule is Important for People With Bipolar Disorder

Keeping to a regular schedule is good for anybody’s health and well-being but it is especially important for people with bipolar disorder. BD is characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that can last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with psychosis, it is called mania. Sticking to a consistent routine can help decrease the risk of experiencing these periods of mania and depression. 

People with bipolar disorder are more vulnerable to disruptions in their circadian rhythms, which are biological processes that operate on a roughly 24-hour cycle and serve a crucial role in maintaining health. Circadian rhythms include the cycle of sleeping and waking and the cycle of regulating body temperature. 

The circadian system is governed by a region of the brain known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, with assistance from peripherals located in body tissues. These internal clocks synchronize biological circadian rhythms with external cues in the environment, such as light, meal times, and daily routines.

Such external cues are also referred to as “social zeitgeber,” explained Alexandra Gold Ph.D. in Psychology Today. “According to the social zeitgeber theory, developed by Dr. Ehlers, Frank, and Kupfer, life events that disrupt social zeitgebers can lead to irregularity in circadian rhythms, which can in turn contribute to ongoing, broader desynchronization between circadian rhythms and social zeitgebers, ultimately leading to a mood episode.”

The social zeitgeber theory suggests that “life events disturb social zeitgebers (“time givers”), which, in turn, disturb biological rhythms, resulting in affective symptomatology in vulnerable individuals,” wrote Boland, Stange, et al. in their 2016 study “Affective Disruption from Social Rhythm and Behavioral Approach System (BAS) Sensitivities.” 

“The occurrence of life events, or the stress associated with their occurrence, disrupts daily social rhythms (such as bedtimes, mealtimes, and the beginning and ending of work), which are theorized to entrain internal circadian rhythms,” wrote the authors “In turn, the disruption of the circadian rhythms is thought to lead to depressive or manic episodes.”

Keeping a regular schedule works to minimize those disruptions. So, what should a healthy schedule look like? “Ideally, this looks like having regular times for some of the major events that create the framework for your day,” wrote Dr. Gold. “This would include regular times that you go to sleep and wake up, regular times that you eat your meals, and regular times that you go to work.”

She recommended three steps for putting schedule regularity into practice: 

  1. Aim for consistency in daily activities. Try to keep the same sleeping and waking times, meal times, and work times on a daily basis. 
  2. Use a calendar to help you keep track of times for consistent daily events outlined in step 1. A calendar can also be a helpful tool for scheduling new events that might not fall into your regular routines.
  3. Notice how your schedule is impacting your mood.

Recovery from serious mental illness requires that people experiencing disorders such as BD retain a sense of empowerment—a belief in their ability to take charge of their lives and manage the complex demands and consequences of the illness. This includes understanding and adopting a healthy regular schedule. 

Colorado Recovery opened as an independent treatment center in Boulder in 2006 to create a non-hospital treatment center for people with serious mental illness that employed the most effective diagnostic and treatment methods and focused on respectful, compassionate, and optimistic care.

Our treatment facility provides the services needed to address schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses which are specific to each individual. About half of our clients are under 35 years of age and we expect good outcomes regardless of the duration of the disorder. Clients of any age will feel comfortable in our program. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

Unveiling of Schizophrenia Brain Cells Shows New Treatment Targets

When you take a brain tissue sample, all that your analysis generally shows you is an average for all the cell types present. And since there are a whole lot of different cell types in our brain, you get a kind of cell soup, which makes it difficult if not impossible to tell the cells apart, let alone study them.

Now, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark applied a new method to analyze neurons one by one in order to reveal hitherto unobtainable information about them. The researchers specifically studied post-mortem brain tissue from adult patients with schizophrenia using control samples from non-schizophrenic brains.

“The human brain has very heterogenous tissue with hundreds of neuron types. We identified exactly those neurons that are most affected by schizophrenia, the position of these neurons in the human brain, and what is wrong with these neurons,” explained Konstantin Khodosevich, group leader and associate professor at the Biotech Research & Innovation Center (BRIC) at the University of Copenhagen.

What is Schizophrenia?

“Schizophrenia is a psychosis,” wrote the late Colorado Recovery founder Richard Warner in his book The Environment of Schizophrenia. “It is a severe mental disorder in which the person’s emotions, thinking, judgment, and grasp of reality are so disturbed that his or her functioning is seriously impaired.”

Symptoms can vary in type and severity over time, with periods of worsening and remission of symptoms. It’s frequently difficult to distinguish between symptoms of bipolar disorder from schizophrenia.

Approximately one percent of Americans are affected by schizophrenia. In most cases, schizophrenia first appears in men during their late teens or early 20s. In women, schizophrenia often first appears during their 20s or early 30s.

New Treatment Target

By finding the neurons most affected in schizophrenia as a whole, the research team points out that these neurons could become the next treatment target.

“Now that we know the most affected neurons, we can try to target them to alleviate some of the symptoms that come with the disease. We also now know the molecular changes in these neurons. This gives us the potential to not only alleviate the symptoms but also treat schizophrenia early in the therapeutic window, which is during the brain’s maturation until 20–25 years of age,” said Khodosevich.

The researchers discovered a network of neurons most affected by schizophrenia. In particular, they show that it is the upper layers of the prefrontal cortex, the region of the cortex which is involved in higher cognitive brain functions such as learning and memory, and general cognition.

“Our results suggest that for treatment of schizophrenia we should not target one type of neurons, but rather their overall network. Impacting this network or cell ensemble could help restore the impaired function of these neurons,” Khodosevich said.

Identifying neurons that are possibly involved in developing schizophrenia can only be one aspect of treating this serious condition. Treatment is frequently lifelong and usually involves a combination of medications, psychotherapy, and coordinated specialty care services.

Colorado Recovery founder Richard Warner considered schizophrenia a bio-psycho-social disorder significantly affected by the environment surrounding the person with the mental health condition on multiple levels.

Colorado Recovery approaches care for mental health based on a path of self-reliance through developed practiced skills. This non-institutionalized philosophy offers comprehensive levels of care supported by an expert medical and clinical team, engaging patients in increasing community participation.

Our treatment facility provides the services needed to address schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses which are specific to each individual. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

The Similarities Between Schizophrenia and Dementia 

“Is there a link between schizophrenia and dementia?” asked Marc Lener, MD, in an article for Medical News Today in December.

A number of studies have suggested that there is a relationship between schizophrenia and dementia. People with a late onset of schizophrenia appear to be more likely to develop dementia. “Researchers do not know whether schizophrenia is a risk factor for dementia, a cause of dementia, or whether one may help to predict the other. In fact, schizophrenia was once called ‘dementia praecox,’ which means premature dementia,” wrote Dr. Lener

Now, researchers have, for the first time, compared schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia—disorders that are both located in the frontal and temporal lobe regions of the brain. “With the help of imaging and machine learning, scientists have found the first valid indications of neuroanatomical patterns in the brain that resemble the signature of patients with frontotemporal dementia,” reported Neuroscience News in August. 

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), especially the behavioral variant (bvFTD), is difficult to recognize in its early stages because it is often confused with schizophrenia. Thus, the similarities are obvious: in sufferers of both groups, personality, as well as behavioral changes, occur. Since both schizophrenia and FTD are located in the frontal, temporal and insular regions of the brain, it was obvious to compare them directly as well.

Nikolaos Koutsouleris and Matthias Schroeter, who are both physicians and researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany revisited seemingly obsolete “dementia praecox” findings that are more than 120 years old. The term was coined by psychiatry pioneer Emil Kraepelin, the founder of the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry. 

Kraepelin assumed that the reason for the sometimes-debilitating course of the patients is located in the frontal and temporal lobe areas of the brain. That’s where personality, social behavior, and empathy are controlled.

“But this idea was lost as no pathological evidence for neurodegenerative processes seen in Alzheimer’s Disease was found in the brains of these patients,” Koutsouleris told Neuroscience News. But schizophrenia and FTD seem to be on a similar symptom spectrum, “so we wanted to look for common signatures or patterns in the brain,” Koutsouleris said.

With an international team, Koutsouleris and his colleague Matthias Schroeter used artificial intelligence to train neuroanatomical classifiers of both disorders, which they applied to brain data from different cohorts.

The result, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, was that 41 percent of schizophrenia patients met the classifier’s criteria for bvFTD. “When we saw this in schizophrenic patients as well, it rang a bell—indicating a similarity between the two disorders,” Koutsouleris and Schroeter recall. Hopefully, their research will contribute to improving treatment options for both disorders.

“Schizophrenia is a psychosis—a severe mental disorder in which the person’s emotions, thinking, judgment, and grasp of reality are so disturbed that his or her functioning is seriously impaired,” explained the late Colorado Recovery founder Richard Warner in his book The Environment of Schizophrenia. It is a disorder still not well understood and as a result, there are many misconceptions regarding the treatment of schizophrenia in our society. 

Dr. Warner used empirical evidence to challenge the previously prevailing view of schizophrenia, which suggested that psychosis was strongly characterized by poor clinical and social outcomes. Warner distinguished between “complete recovery” and “social recovery”. He defined the former as loss of psychiatric symptoms and return to a pre-illness level of functioning, whereas he described social recovery in functional terms; economic and residential independence with low social disruption, an important component of which is employment.

Colorado Recovery provides services for adults with serious mental illnesses that will stabilize their illness, minimize symptoms, improve functioning and enhance each person’s social inclusion, quality of life, and sense of meaning in life. We provide residential and outpatient treatment options for schizophrenia, bipolar, schizoaffective disorder, and other mental health conditions. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

Study Suggests Schizophrenia May Be Detectable Years Before Its Onset

“Problems abound in defining schizophrenia,” wrote the late Colorado Recovery founder Richard Warner in his book The Environment of Schizophrenia. Symptoms can vary in type and severity over time, with periods of worsening and remission of symptoms. It’s frequently difficult to distinguish between symptoms of bipolar disorder for schizophrenia. 

The cause of the illness is  also unknown. “There is no single organic defect or infectious agent which causes schizophrenia, but a variety of factors increase the illness—among them genetics and obstetric complications,” wrote Dr. Warner. Then there is the onset mystery of why schizophrenia “normally begins in adolescence when important risk factors, such as genetic loading and neonatal brain damage, are present from birth or sooner.” 

New research is now suggesting that the risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may be detectable years before the illnesses begin. A University College Dublin-led study funded by the Health Research Board found that 50 percent of people who developed these mental health disorders had attended specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in childhood.

Published in the journal World Psychiatry, the findings suggest the possibility of earlier intervention and even prevention, co-author Professor Ian Kelleher from the UCD School of Medicine told Neuroscience. The study was carried out in conjunction with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

“In a total population study of all individuals born in Finland in 1987 and followed up to 28 years, half of all psychosis and bipolar diagnoses occurred in individuals who had attended CAMHS during childhood or adolescence,” wrote study authors Kelleher, Lång, Ramsay, Yates, et al. 

The authors felt that there was a significant window of opportunity for intervention in terms of the time from initial CAMHS attendance to a diagnosis of psychosis or bipolar disorder.

“These findings highlight an enormous, untapped potential for the prediction of psychosis and bipolar disorder within already existing structures providing specialist pediatric mental health care. They support a new focus for psychosis and bipolar disorder prediction efforts on specialist community and inpatient CAMHS and present exciting new opportunities for psychosis and bipolar disorder prevention research.”

They wrote that “a key finding of our study was that in contrast to the small proportion of psychosis cases identified by current high-risk strategies, at least half of all individuals diagnosed with psychosis or bipolar disorder by age 28 years had, at some point in their childhood or adolescence, attended specialist CAMHS.”

Furthermore, the researchers found that their findings “also highlight the importance of the transition between adolescent and adult mental health services. The reasons for presenting to CAMHS differ from those for presenting to adult mental health services, and only a small minority of CAMHS patients are subsequently referred to the latter services.”

Stressing the importance of early intervention, Professor Kelleher told Neuroscience: “We know it’s crucial to intervene as early as possible to prevent some of the worst effects of these illnesses. But ideally, we would like to be able to intervene even before the onset of illness, to prevent it altogether.”

Colorado Recovery opened as an independent treatment center in Boulder in 2006 to create a non-hospital treatment center for people with serious mental illness that employed the most effective diagnostic and treatment methods and focused on respectful, compassionate, and optimistic care.

Our treatment facility provides the services needed to address schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses which are specific to each individual. About half of our clients are under 35 years of age and we expect good outcomes regardless of the duration of the disorder. Clients of any age will feel comfortable in our program. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

 

Colorado Recovery Launches Partnership With Therapeutic Riding Center

Colorado Recovery has teamed up with the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center (CTRC) in Longmont, CO to expand services for their clients. The Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center is the oldest therapeutic riding center in the Centennial State and has been operating since 1980. 
 
Equine-assisted therapy incorporates horses into the therapeutic process. People engage in activities such as riding, grooming, feeding, and leading a horse while being supervised by a mental health professional.
 
The goals of this experiential form of therapy include helping people develop skills such as emotional regulation, self-confidence, and responsibility. Mature horses typically weigh between 900 and 2,000 pounds and it can sometimes feel a little bit intimidating to have such a large, majestic creature participate in therapy sessions.
 
However, because of its demonstrable benefits, equine-assisted therapy has grown in popularity. Horses are keen observers and are vigilant and sensitive to movement and emotion. They often mirror a client’s behavior and feelings, conveying understanding and connection that allows the client to feel safe.
 
Potential benefits of equine therapy include distress tolerance, emotional awareness, impulse control, self-esteem, social awareness, and improved social relationships.
 
Michele Bruhn is the executive director at Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center. “Our mission is to change the lives of people with disabilities and mental health issues by promoting their physical, psychological, and social well-being through equine-assisted activities and therapies,” she says. “CTRC maintains a herd of more than 25 magnificent therapeutic riding horses. Each member of our herd is a treasure in a way that is unique to them, each with their own tale to tell.” 
 
On its 39-acre campus, CTRC offers therapeutic horsemanship, equine-assisted therapies, and equine-assisted mental health services. “The horses are really the modality of treatment,” says Bruhn. Clients are not necessarily learning how to ride a horse as our therapists work on different goals for each individual client. We evaluate our clients’ affect and body structure and then match the right type of horse with that person.” 
 
All CTRC instructors are certified through Path International. The first Colorado Recovery patients started equine therapy in mid-September.  
 
Colorado Recovery
 
The treatment program at Colorado Recovery aims to empower adults with mental illness, and those who support them, with an unrelenting optimism for recovery, purposeful involvement in the community, and an enhanced sense of meaning in life.
 
Our treatment facility provides the services needed to address schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses which are specific to each individual. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

Psychiatrist Nauman H. Taj Joins Colorado Recovery as Medical Director

Nauman Hanif Taj, MD, is the new medical director at Colorado Recovery. Dr. Taj has a long, impressive track record as a board-certified adult psychiatrist. 

Following his medical training at Tufts University in Massachusetts, Dr. Taj was awarded a fellowship at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, the third oldest psychoanalytic institute in the United States. Dr. Taj has worked as a psychiatrist in various settings including inpatient and outpatient.

After working in a Nebraska hospital for several years, Dr. Taj moved to the Ft. Collins area in Colorado to practice as a psychiatrist. Recently, he was approached by Colorado Recovery to help take its immensely successful Warner treatment model to the next level. 

“Colorado Recovery is different because it brings clients out into the community as part of their psychiatric rehab,” says Dr. Taj. Community integration and social engagement are at the heart of the treatment philosophy, setting the course for a life of engagement, purpose, and connection. 

Another Colorado Recovery advantage is the careful re-evaluation of each individual diagnosis. “We always do a comprehensive, fresh evaluation. Many clients have had the same diagnosis for years, which is sometimes wrong and symptoms can always change. You really need to know the patient, their social life, and their support system. I also ask them what they don’t like about seeing a doctor and that often opens up an interesting perspective.”

Dr. Taj emphasizes that you always have to see the whole person. “You can’t separate the patient and the patient’s symptoms from the human being you’re interacting with. That person could be a husband, a dad, or a mom. That person could be working two jobs just to keep a roof over their head. You have to see that patient as an important part of society.” 

Colorado Recovery

The treatment program at Colorado Recovery aims to empower adults with mental illness, and those who support them, with an unrelenting optimism for recovery, purposeful involvement in the community, and an enhanced sense of meaning in life.

Our treatment facility provides the services needed to address schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses which are specific to each individual. Call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.

American Alternative to Psychiatric Hospitalization Revived in Israel

Traditional approaches to treating psychosis and other serious mental health conditions frequently involve hospitalization and the prescription of powerful medications. Critics argue they are often ineffective and involve the risk of serious adverse effects.

The Soteria model was meant to be an effective alternative to psychiatric hospitalization, preserving patients’ personal power, social networks, and communal responsibilities. The original project was founded by psychiatrist Loren Mosher in San Jose, California, in 1971.

A second Soteria facility opened in 1974 near San Francisco. Mosher was influenced by the philosophy of moral treatment, previous experimental therapeutic communities, and Freudian psychoanalysis. The name Soteria is derived from the Greek word for “salvation” or “deliverance.” Soteria or Soteria-based houses are currently run in the United States, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and other countries.

The Soteria concept recently received an upgrade in Israel. In an article for Psychology Today, John Read reported on the successes and challenges of three new Soteria-style houses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Read was delighted to be invited himself to the opening of the first of the three Soteria-Israel houses in 2016 in Jerusalem. “The warm, relaxed atmosphere in the house was such that it took some time before I could tell who were residents and who were staff,” he remembered. “Not being a religious person I had mixed feelings about the presence of a rabbi until it was explained to me that the person in question was not a rabbi but a resident who sometimes liked to be a rabbi, which seemed to bother nobody.”

Friedlander, Tzur-Bitan, and Lichtenberg evaluated the Israeli Soteria homes. While “crucial components of the original model were preserved … others had to be altered,” they reported in “The Soteria model: implementing an alternative to acute psychiatric hospitalization in Israel.”

The researchers presented eight basic principles for the functioning of Soteria: “care is given in a home, not an institution; groups are small, eight or less; communication is open; activities are client-centered; treatment is consensual; medication is de-emphasized; staff learns to ‘be with’ the resident empathically and non-judgmentally, and the group is the central therapeutic instrument.”

“The heart of the staff remained the ‘companions’, usually students or individuals with personal experience of acute emotional crises,” Friedlander, Tzur-Bitan, and Lichtenberg explained. “These companions were instructed, as in the original Soteria, to cultivate a therapeutic community, with a warm and non-hierarchical atmosphere, blurring the differences between staff and residents.“

Participation and empowerment of patients are key ingredients of the model. “Medication was not considered the first line of treatment, and when used, was understood to be mainly symptomatic treatment—drug-centered and not disease-centered. Its use was not forbidden (contrary to the original Soteria during the first six weeks of the stay), nor was it mandatory, except in exceptional cases where there was a concern for the safety of the residents or their environment. As with all treatment decisions, considerations pro and con were discussed candidly with the resident.”

As Read pointed out in Psychology Today, “the Soteria model is by no means the only alternative to the traditional ‘medical model’ approach of label (diagnose), medicate and, when that fails, hospitalize.”

A similar treatment alternative to psychiatric hospitalization is available at Colorado Recovery. Our Warner Model emphasizes empowerment, integration, and self-actualization. The late Dr. Richard Warner was internationally known for his groundbreaking approach to mental health treatment and for the new model of treatment he created, based on a warmer and more familial setting, comprehensive levels of care that result in a path of self-reliance, and community engagement for connection and a feeling of contribution.

The Treehouse at Colorado Recovery is a social-vocational center run by and for our clients. The program helps prepare them for success in relationships, volunteer work, education and training, internships, and job placements.

At Colorado Recovery it is our mission to help adults with serious mental health issues stabilize their illness, minimize symptoms, improve functioning and enhance each person’s social inclusion, quality of life, and sense of meaning in life.

If you have questions about our recovery model or our services to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and similar mental illnesses, call us at 720-218-4068 to discuss treatment options for you or the person you would like to help.