Group walks 50 miles to highlight lack of mental health care in rural areas
A group of advocates from Healthier Colorado is walking from Canon City to Pueblo. It’s the distance someone may have to travel to get the mental health care he or she needs.
It’s a two-day journey walking through rural roads, aimed to give a bigger picture of mental health.
“Mental health is something that my family has had a history with. Luckily we live in Denver and really have the luxury of having these facilities close to us, but I can’t imagine for the families who don’t have access to that,” said Angelina Sierra-Sandoval, advocacy fellow for Healthier Colorado.
No access to mental health care means a long drive to get it.
“One of the longest is about a three-hour drive to the closet facility, and that’s why we’re walking, because we really wanted to portray a visual of how far these facilities are,” Sierra-Sandoval said.
The group started in Canon City at Rouse park, and it’s walking nearly 50 miles to Mineral Palace Park, in Pueblo.
“It’s going to be a long walk, but the point is to physically show and demonstrate why this is so important,” said Crystal Murillo, advocacy fellow for Healthier Colorado.
It’s even more important for Crystal Murillo, who’s struggled with mental health issues in the past.
“Mental health is something that I don’t think is in our culture, especially in college. I didn’t feel it was OK to seek mental health services,” Murillo said.
For another volunteer, it’s about showing support for her mother.
“She’s clinically diagnosed with depression, but she didn’t want to believe it was a thing either. She didn’t believe depression; she thought it was an excuse for not waking up in the morning,” said Iriana Corral, a volunteer.
The group hopes stories like these will influence the state Legislature to improve access to behavioral and mental health services.
“This is an issue and something we need to address. There’s obviously lots of issues we want to pass in this next session but we really want to focus on mental health,” Sierra-Sandoval said.
The group will finish its walk Thursday at 1 p.m. in Pueblo.
