On a tour in northern Colorado two weeks ago, first lady Jeannie Ritter was talking to officials about better ways to provide mental-health-care services in Colorado’s far-flung communities when her husband called.
A man carrying a loaded gun and claiming to be emperor of the state had been shot and killed at the Capitol after rushing the governor’s office, Gov. Bill Ritter told his wife.
“Ten minutes later, August (their eldest son) called me from Spain. That’s how fast the news spread,” Jeannie Ritter said.
That news brought anxiety and relief.
Anxiety because Jeannie was soon stuck in traffic on Rabbit Ears Pass where she couldn’t get updates because she didn’t have cellphone reception. Relief because her husband wasn’t hurt.
But it didn’t bring Jeannie home to Denver that night. The governor said he would go home to take care of their younger children that evening.
“Bill and I spoke, and he encouraged me to stay,” she said. “He told me, ‘You’re doing what you should be doing.”‘
What she was doing was promoting an issue she has taken as her own.
She trained to teach emotionally disturbed children and has a sister who has bipolar disorder.
Today, Ritter begins her fifth tour to promote mental-health care since her husband was sworn into office in January. This week, she’ll visit officials in Summit, Lake, Pitkin and Park counties.
In an interview Tuesday, Ritter said she was encouraged by communities that share costs to hire counselors. In another town, the mental- health clinics that had been hidden away are moving “where it should be,” next to the hospital.
Randall Reitz, executive director of the Summit Community Care Clinic, said he hopes his site will provide another example of ways to improve mental-health care.
The clinic, which provides care to uninsured working people, ensures that patients can get mental-health care without the hassle of extra paperwork.
Doctors who see a diabetes patient can treat the illness while referring the patient to a counselor in the same clinic to deal with eating disorders, Reitz said.
“We think we have a great model that works for all of our residents,” Reitz said.
Jeannie Ritter said she hopes her tours will help communities learn from one another.
Her first stop after the Capitol shooting two weeks ago was in Steamboat Springs, where officials touted its tele-psychiatry program.
Everybody wanted to show off the technology – how a patient and a doctor could communicate live via video, she said.
“Finally I said, ‘Could everybody else leave the room for a moment?”‘ Ritter said.
She used the opportunity to talk with the psychiatrist about the emotions and the reactions to the day’s traumatic events.
“I stayed that night,” she said. “The first time I got any coverage (of the shooting) was on the 9 o’clock news.”
Ritter attended a meeting in Craig before canceling an appointment in Meeker to head back to Denver.
“When that last meeting was over, I was just in tears when I was getting into my car to come home,” she said. “I couldn’t stay two nights away. But the one night was OK.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
