COLORADO SPRINGS – A mother and son duo are helping families across the state dedicate more resources to mental health.
Lindsey and Bryson Kangas founded the non-profit organization Bryson’s Chase Foundation to help families with children in need of psychological care.
Lindsey fought for years to help her son Bryson with his mental health problems.
“Experiencing this at a young age is very hard and very new. All this stress and these emotions are just difficult, but I’m glad I went through it because it made me who I am today,” said Bryson.
His parents noticed some behavior problems when he was in elementary school.
“I started to notice differences in his behavior at the age of 2. He was kicked out of several day care centers because of aggression, I didn’t know the cause,” said Lindsey.
“In fact, as a kid, I realized that my anger was uncontrollable. Everything was out of control and I didn’t know what was happening to me,” said Bryson. “I hated talking about my problems, but when I opened up and accepted that people wanted to help me, I was a different person.”
It was over Colorado Pediatric Mental Health Institute for Children that Bryson had a breakthrough, but he had to travel to a dorm in Texas to get more resources.
“It was the day I got out of the hospital and caught her attention and I was like mom, that was the best experience of my life. It was tough but I told her how great I feel and that I can want to do.” known, “said Bryson.
Three years later, her nonprofit is supporting the same program that her family was helping.
“Last Friday we presented a check for $ 32,500 to the Children’s Colorado Pediatric Mental Health Institute. That was our year of donation, and it just knocked me out. We raised $ 400 at our first event. Now, three Years later, we donated over $ 75,000 to this program, “said Lindsey.
Bryson’s Chase Foundation has partnered with the hospital to improve families’ lives.
“We’re helping provide co-payments, medication, and even fuel cards to get kids to and from appointments,” said Lindsey.
“We continue to see a 90 percent increase in our patient numbers in 2020 and we hope we can move forward, but there just aren’t enough outpatient services in the community to stabilize the population before they get it.” Everyone is trying to work on it together, and when these donors donate to Children’s Hospital Colorado it will be that big, “said Tom Caughlan, manager of behavioral health at Children’s Colorado Pediatric Mental Health Institute.
Caughlan says the hospital is working to create more mental health resources as the need continues to grow.
“The biggest thing we do, and it’s ready to go right out of the box, is our school-based program. We have health trainers and licensed clinicians who go to the different school districts, visit students and provide resilience-based services. What we learn from these programs is that children learn to recognize their mental health problems before they get into crisis, that they are able to communicate and help their peers. This is pretty groundbreaking for the state of Colorado, but especially for southern Colorado, “Caughlan said.
Bryson’s Chase Foundation is now expanding and becoming another resource for families in the state.
“We will offer camps for children. I’m really excited about it because as a parent, if you’re in the trenches, I would have given anything to make sure my child went to a safe place and was poured into it, ”said Lindsey.
The recreational retreat camps will be fully funded weekend getaways for kids to take part in team building exercises, hiking, zip lining, and other activities this summer.
For those interested in funding the camps, the Bryson’s Chase Foundation is hosting their third annual Valentine’s Day Casino Night at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort on February 12th. The goal is to raise over $ 50,000.
Mental health resources
