Eagle County’s Department of Public Health and Environment will ask for $600,000 during a work session on Monday.
For one year, the money would provide full-time mental health counselors in the jail and the school districts.
The sum is roughly half of the amount the pot tax could generate in a year. Another, more expensive, mental health priority the county has is to create crisis-stabilization beds: safe places where people can go if they’re experiencing a mental health emergency.
Suicide rates are at an all time high in Eagle County and the sheriff reports that up to 70 percent of inmates are on medications for mental health illnesses.
