Denver mayor appoints Don Mares as first mental health strategist

BREAKDOWN: Launch the Denver Post investigative series.

Mental health advocate Don Mares, a former Denver auditor, will return to city government to coordinate far-flung efforts and create a strategy on the issue.

Mayor Michael Hancock announced Mares’ appointment Wednesday as executive director of the new Office of Behavioral Strategies.

City officials say they believe it’s the first office of its kind for a major U.S. metropolitan city.

Mares, the president and CEO of Mental Health America of Colorado for four years, will serve as Denver’s point person on mental illness issues — similar to the role of Hancock’s executive director for marijuana policy, who coordinates related regulatory efforts across city government.

Mares says he will work with several departments and agencies that have mental health components to programs or efforts on homelessness, substance abuse, public health, crime prevention, children’s affairs and human services.

The Denver Post last month spotlighted Colorado’s broken mental health system in a four-day investigative series that Hancock and Mares cited Wednesday.

The state is spending millions of dollars treating mental illness in crisis situations — at emergency rooms, jails and prisons — instead of investing in prevention. The system for mental health care is disjointed and unorganized, The Post found, in part because city and state agencies that provide services for people with mental illness do not communicate or coordinate.

Hancock is
hopeful that Mares’ new office will undertake a “groundbreaking effort to address those issues” at the city level. He will be paid a $152,000 salary, putting him on par with several Cabinet-level appointees.

“I think it’s really bold of the city to do this,” said Carl Clark, president of the Mental Health Center of Denver. “This is sort of trend-setting.”

The appointment has promise, he and other advocates said, if Mares can not only connect agencies’ existing efforts but also deliver new ideas.

For Colorado Coalition for the Homeless president John Parvensky, that could mean
coordinating housing and treatment for the estimated two-thirds of the chronically homeless who also have mental illnesses.

Most helpful, Parvensky said, would be resources to pay for counseling and hospital care, as well as working with law enforcement to divert those with mental illness to treatment instead of jail cells.

Clark suggested initiatives that include training all of the city’s 11,000 employees in mental health first aid so they could recognize when someone needs treatment then help the person find it.

The city could measure progress by the decreases in the number of mentally ill inmates and the number using emergency rooms for mental health care, instead of clinics and crisis centers, he said.

Mares said his interest in mental illness took off when his younger brother, Fred, began grappling with depression and anxiety. His brother was suicidal a decade ago, he said, but has gotten help.

The greatest challenge in his new job, Mares said, will be the stigma that surrounds mental illness.

“I will repeat this a lot while I have this position: This is everybody’s issue,” Mares said during a news conference in the City and County Building. “And one of our challenges and opportunities is not only to help those operations work more efficiently and better but also to look at what else we can do for the community … that impacts all of us.”

Mares will start Jan. 5 and initially will work alongside Reggie Huerter, executive director of Denver’s Crime Prevention and Control Commission in the Department of Public Safety.

“Through this collaborative effort,” Hancock said of Mares’ role, “it is Denver’s goal to improve the well-being of our community, supporting those who need our help the most.”

Besides two terms as city auditor, Mares also served as a state legislator and as then-Gov. Bill Ritter’s labor department chief.

Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JonMurray