Colorado

Colorado Moves to Connect Agricultural Workers With Mental Health Resources

Published

2 years ago

February 12, 2024

Colorado Moves to Connect Agricultural Workers With Mental Health Resources

The stresses of working in Colorado’s agricultural sector are amplified for migrant workers

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Spanish-language services are also available.

Colorado lawmakers have proposed a pair of measures they say will improve the availability of mental health resources for the state’s agricultural industry, as stress, anxiety, and depression among ranchers and farmhands have emerged as critical issues that have worsened since the coronavirus pandemic.

The bills under consideration would address a growing need to treat rural mental health issues that have only compounded with the effects of the pandemic and climate change — all in a state that has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. Mental health professionals are scarce in rural parts of Colorado, a significant gap considering suicide rates have been higher in rural America than in metropolitan areas for decades.

The first bill would create an agricultural and rural community behavioral health liaison position; that person would connect various state agencies with mental health care providers, nonprofits, and community leaders. The second bill is designed shore up and publicize suicide prevention resources for agricultural workers.

“If you’re two hours away from a health professional, and maybe in the winter in a snowstorm it’s a four- or five-hour drive, you’re just not going to seek or get the help that you want and need,” said state Sen. Perry Will, a Republican sponsoring the liaison bill. “Anything we can do to increase access to behavioral health care in rural Colorado and in rural communities is a benefit.”

The stresses of working in Colorado’s agricultural sector are amplified for migrant workers who face language barriers or cultural stigmas. The 2017 Census of Agriculture (updated 2022 data is scheduled to be released in mid-February) found about 8% of Colorado’s farms employ Hispanic or Spanish-speaking workers. In 2022, there were more than 19,000 farmworkers statewide.

“When we talk about emotional needs, they feel a void. They don’t know what to do because of this void they feel. But they feel that there’s something wrong,” said Ere Juarez, a regional director for the Project Protect Food Systems Workers who works closely with migrant families. “The loneliness, the sadness, the guilt, it’s high — super high.”

Migrant workers are routinely in Colorado for six to 10 months of the year to support relatives in their home countries. But they often face difficult conditions while in the U.S., Juarez said: working shifts of up to 16 hours a day, living with dozens of people inside small apartments, and having limited communication with family back home. In addition to the language barrier English presents, some workers don’t even speak Spanish, Juarez added, frustrating those who try to communicate in regional Spanish dialects.

Juarez said those feelings sometimes manifest as alcohol abuse or suicidal thoughts. Behavioral health resources to help workers need to be built up, she said.

“We all have food on our tables because they work for us,” Juarez said. “They are leaving their bodies in our fields in order to feed us.”

Then there is the drop in income when winter and year-round workers might clock in only 10 to 20 hours per week, said Hunter Knapp, development director for Project Protect Food Systems Workers. “Workers who stay here throughout the year face a lot of economic challenges and all the associated mental and behavioral health challenges that come with losing income and work.”

Iriana Medina, community engagement coordinator at the nonprofit La Plaza, has identified similar issues. Her organization works with migrant and immigrant communities in Mesa County on Colorado’s Western Slope, a region known for its juicy and sweet Palisade peaches and regional wine. “The diversity of having a person that has a different cultural and language background is a bridge that needs to be built,” Medina said. “Whatever these bills will take us to will actually be a piece of the puzzle” toward benefiting the Hispanic community, she added.

State Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Democrat and gun violence prevention advocate whose son, Alex, was murdered in the 2012 Aurora movie theater massacre, sponsored the bill to combat suicide. Sullivan said he is concerned that a person is more likely to take their life in a rural district than in an urban one.

“I’m just trying to acknowledge that there are people struggling in these communities and let them know that there’s somebody out there who will actually listen and understand their problems when they call,” Sullivan said.

KFF Health News ethnic media editor Paula Andalo contributed to this story.

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Spanish-language services are also available.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

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Colorado

‘We couldn’t do this in another place’: Horror film looks to make Southern Colorado the next Hollywood

Published

8 hours ago

May 29, 2026

Press Room

‘We couldn’t do this in another place’: Horror film looks to make Southern Colorado the next Hollywood

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – It’s commonly understood that many of the best blockbusters are made in Southern California but a group of local filmmakers wants to prove Southern Colorado can be a destination for both aspiring and established auteurs.

Shooting began in Fountain this spring on ‘Devil In The Trunk’, a new horror film set in Colorado’s eastern plains.

“Devil In The Trunk is about a small-town woman who encounters a mysterious traveler driving this car right here who claims to have the actual devil trapped in the trunk of her car,” executive producer Leon Kelly said. “As you can imagine, when the devil comes to your small town, terrible and dangerous things can happen.”

Director, writer, and producer Evan Alderson said they wanted to make the film as Colorado as possible.

“We ended up finding a local Colorado writer, and we ended up collaborating to come up with this idea that could act as a love letter to Colorado,” he said.

While Colorado may be most famous for its soaring mountain peaks, Kelly said the plains were a much more fitting setting.

“It’s both beautiful and dangerous at the same time,” he said. “One of the underlying themes is the desolation and the loneliness and how vulnerable some folks can be in small towns and out in rural areas.”

Kelly said not only is the film meant to showcase Colorado’s natural beauty, but also to showcase the talent of the people who live there.

“It’s a proof of concept, to show that we have not only the talented people but the infrastructure that can support really high-quality, independent films,” he said. “We know we’ve got great filmmakers here, we know we have really talented craftspeople here, but they don’t necessarily have the opportunities to work on something like this on this scale that’s a narrative film.”

With the Sundance Film Festival set to make its debut in Boulder in 2027, Kelly said people are asking new questions about what Colorado can do for those looking to tell stories on the big screen.

“Can Colorado become a hub? Can that be a place, a destination where others come? Can that be a place where our own filmmakers can come into their own?” he said.

Alderson said once the film is finished they will put it out on the film festival circuit, and even look for distribution.

“That will look like a theatrical release, potentially, in an ideal world, or it will be straight to streaming services like Amazon, Hulu, that type of stuff,” he said.

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Colorado

Victim shot in the face takes the stand in second day of Colorado trial for Brent Metz

Published

20 hours ago

May 28, 2026

Press Room

Victim shot in the face takes the stand in second day of Colorado trial for Brent Metz

The now 19-year-old victim, who Brent Metz is accused of shooting in the face, took the stand in Metz’s trial Thursday. Metz, a former town of Mountain View councilman, was in the second day of his trial hearings.

CBS

The teenager, who has recovered well physically from the shooting back in September of 2024, told the story of what led up to the shooting, then said he blacked out for a period after he was shot.

The young man, Jack (CBS Colorado is not sharing the victim’s last name) said he and his younger friend went to ask for permission to take pictures at a scenic home near Conifer. At first, they parked outside the gated driveway and tried to figure out how to contact someone there. They then hopped a low fence and went up to the house.

Jack said he had difficulty locating a front door on the home, but the large property also had a garage and barn. They heard music coming from the barn, which is a common practice for people with animals to leave music playing to calm animals while away.

“We decided to knock on the barn door and then after a couple a minutes we decided to go back down the driveway,” Jack said in court.

The two friends went back over the fence and moved the car to a spot not blocking the driveway along the right-of-way at the road. Minutes later, Brent Metz drove up in his black GMC pickup truck, blocking their car in. Metz got out. Jack testified that he raised his hands at some point, a claim the defense questioned in cross examination. He related that he was getting out to try to greet the person getting out of the truck.

“I just (got) the door open I kind of turned to open my door and then turned to get out, and I saw someone get out, and then it was black,” Jack said.

The victim soon awoke bleeding and injured. “I looked down and I thought I was going to die. So I said that a couple times,” Jack testified.

“My mouth was on fire and it felt like my upper lip was gone, and I could taste little fragments,” Jack told the court. Jack’s friend and Metz tried to help him out of the car.

“The one who shot me was trying to help me get out of the car.”

Soon after, Metz left his side.

“He helped me sit down, and then he walked away,” Jack said.

“I started to realize I needed to stay as calm as I could, and when I got out of the car, I sat down, but I was very anxious,” Jack recalled.

Later, the victim had to have surgery in order to have the bullet fragments removed from his face. One of the fragments was more than an inch in size. He had trouble breathing through his right nostril due to the injuries to his nose. His eye was blackened for a long time, and a tooth was shattered.

Jack did not remember Metz saying much.

The testimony followed hours of testimony from a gun testing expert who looked at the weapon at the request of the prosecution. Derek Watkins is an engineer who said he has seen many claims of weapons not working properly.

“My experience is that, if you manufacture a firearm, at some point in time, it’s going, you’re going to run across the claim that it behaves in a defective manner,” Watkins said.

Metz’s defense is centered on a claim that the Sig Sauer P320 he had fired on its own without Metz pulling the trigger.

“There was nothing about the gun through the testing or through the examination of the components indicating it would function any other way than it was designed and left the factory,” Watkins said.

The defense had little luck getting Watkins to agree the gun could fire on its own, but did try to point out to the jury in questions that Watkins has previously testified in civil litigation about the gun’s integrity on behalf of the manufacturer.

The case continues Friday when it could wrap up. Metz faces four charges, the most serious of which is second-degree assault, but also two menacing charges and one of illegal discharge of a firearm.

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Colorado

Catholic Colorado: The Semiquincentennial in the Centennial State

Published

1 day ago

May 28, 2026

Press Room

Catholic Colorado: The Semiquincentennial in the Centennial State

On the cusp of the United States’ 250^th anniversary and Colorado’s 150^th, the Centennial State and its Catholic witnesses show modern Catholics a path forward.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, completed in 1912, has stood as a visible symbol of the Catholic faith in Colorado for over a century. (Photo: Archdiocese of Denver Archives)

Colorado celebrates its own 150th anniversary this year, as the rest of the country marks 250 years since the founding of the United States. The two milestones bear an interesting connection. In the very year of independence, one of the most important explorations of Colorado was undertaken by two Franciscan friars: Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante.

Faith Crosses the Rockies

While the importance of the Domínguez-Escalante Expedition should not be overestimated — it didn’t lead to any settlements and mostly focused on Utah — it nonetheless symbolizes the coming of the Christian faith into Colorado. Their expedition traces the path the Church followed into the Rockies, initially coming up from the south, to be met later from the East by miners. Leaving Santa Fe in the very month independence was declared, the two friars and their companions crossed into the modern-day boundaries of Colorado at the beginning of August 1776. They were not the first Spaniards to enter the territory of the Ute and Arapahoe tribes north of Nueva Mexico — Juan de Oñate was in 1598, and they also relied on the previous expeditions of Rivera — but the friars opened up more regular access to it as they laid the foundation for the Santa Fe Trail that would lead from New Mexico to Southern California.

The friars found in Colorado beautiful mountain vistas, remarking that it was cold even in the summer, as well as dangerous canyons and abandoned settlements in the Mesa Verde area. Their journal remarks: “We traveled a league and turned west through very pleasant narrow valleys with woods, very abundant with pastures, with different blooms and flowers.” (The Domínguez-Escalante Journal, translated by Fray Angelico Chavez, University of Utah Press, 15). Focusing on possible mission sites more than a continental passage, they insisted to all their companions that they should not “have any purpose other than the one we had, which was God’s glory and the good of souls” (40). Their desires would take 110 years to come to fruition with the founding of the first Catholic mission to Native Americans in Colorado, St. Ignatius, on the Southern Ute Reservation in Ignacio, Colorado, in 1886.

From Frontier Territory to Catholic Settlement

Catholic life was slow to arrive in Colorado compared to other parts of the nation, especially given the early settlement of New Mexico not far to the south. The Spanish were never able to create permanent settlements in Colorado, with one failed attempt near Pueblo in 1787. This is where 1776 regains its significance, even for the Church’s development in the region. It was only after the United States annexed the Southwest following the Mexican-American War in 1848 that Catholic settlement began. From the south, settlers arrived from Taos to establish San Luis on April 9, 1851. Not long after, in 1858, the Pikes Peak Goldrush brought a flood of miners from the East. From this mix of New Mexican settlers, Native missions and Catholic miners, the Catholic Church of Colorado finally emerged.

In 1860, Father Joseph Projectus Machebeuf arrived from Santa Fe and, in the eight years before he became Denver’s first bishop, the energetic priest established eighteen churches. I first encountered him through Willa Cather’s fictional portrayal of him as the character Vaillant in her novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop (and she relied heavily on Machebeuf’s letters for the book). Though primarily set in New Mexico, Cather brings the history of the Church in the Southwest to life through the vibrant, often tense meetings of Natives, Mexicans, newly arrived Americans and the French clergy seeking to unite them into a cohesive whole. It was Bishop Machebeuf who presided over the Church when Colorado became a state in 1876.

A Little-Known Bishop With An Important Lesson

His successor, Bishop Nicholas Matz, likewise came to Colorado as a missionary from France and experienced firsthand the difficulties miners faced in mountain towns, especially as a pastor in Georgetown. Seth Fabian brings this lesser-known figure to life in his new book, The Pilgrim Bishop: The Spiritual Biography of Nichols C. Matz (TAN Books, 2026).

Even after living in Colorado for nearly twelve years and working for the Archdiocese of Denver for six, I didn’t know much about this misunderstood and even controversial bishop, who often lacked support from his clergy. Even in a newly established state, still riding high from its mining operations, Bishop Matz interpreted the events around him with a lens formed by the violent revolutions of the Old World, fearing and overestimating the “potential reach of radical socialists or anarchists” (11).

Bishop Matz’s difficulty in addressing the social question in his diocese points to an ongoing difficulty for both Colorado and the entire nation in this celebratory year marking their founding. Dr. Fabian raises a fundamental question we must consider: “the question of how individual Catholics live their daily lives in a pluralist society” (386).

We have a strong legacy of Catholic settlement across the continent, of our ancestors seeking to consecrate this land to God. In fact, in just a few weeks, on June 11, the U.S. bishops will do so again when they consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Yet we face pressing challenges that call us to wade into difficult social questions, especially those related to technology and artificial intelligence, as Pope Leo XIV is expected to do in his first encyclical, to be released on May 25.

Despite the real challenges, if we advance, as Domínguez and Escalante did, seeking “God’s glory and the good of souls” above all else, we can continue our great Catholic legacy and open a path for future generations to follow.

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