Mental health challenges facing children has become an important topic in recent years. The Children’s Hospital is doing what they can to help address this issue, but there is somebody in our community working to do his part as well.
"I have been involved in health and wellness my entire career, so the opportunity to bring that passion to a younger age group that really needs it is what really excited me about this,” said Christopher Patton.
Christopher Patton wants to help with the development of children in our area, he's in the process of bringing “KidsSrong” to southern Colorado
"KidStrong is a private child development training facility where we focus on physical, character and brain development for kiddos walking through 11 years old,” said Patton.
While it’s not a mental health facility, the business is geared toward helping kids get away from technology and focused on their social skills and overall well being. According to the Childrens Hospital suicide is a leading cause of death in Colorado for kids and young adults starting at age 10.
“It’s getting them outside of their comfort zones, getting them to focus on those things that seem to draw them toward those depression and areas that concern parents,” said Patton.
He’s slowly getting the word out to as many people as he can through social media, and he’s seen a positive response.
“Over the last two weeks since we’ve started our pre-sales, we’ve actually already gotten over 200 kids signed up, so to see that many parents excited about KidStrong has been pretty great to see,” Patton said.
Throughout all last year, the Children’s Hospital Pediatric System saw more than 65 hundred behavioral health visits of children in crisis in their emergency department, Patton would like to help lower those numbers as much as he can in the future.
“My goal is not just this location, but to have multiple locations in our community because at the end of the day that’s just more kiddos that get exposed to the positive elements of KidStrong,” Patton said.
This upcoming Wednesday, Childrens Hospital Colorado is hosting a virtual town hall to help build family resiliance through tough times.
