James Jackson is a Social Worker with the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Fort Logan.
From an early age, James realized the importance of mental health and the stigma that comes along with it. He knew he wanted to help the people who needed it most - adults with serious mental illness. This led him to focus his Master’s Degree in Social Program on Adult Mental Health and ultimately led him to come to work at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Fort Logan.
James started his career with OCFMH as a social work intern in 2015 as part of his Master’s program. After graduating in 2016, he continued to work at Fort Logan and worked his way up to his current position as a Social Worker IV.
James is part of the Fort Logan staff who stepped up to serve a new patient population when the hospital opened up its new forensic wing for patients involved in the criminal justice system. This unit serves patients who have been court-ordered to undergo competency restoration treatment, which refers to the treatment provided to a person who has been found "incompetent to proceed" to trial, or opined to be unable to fully understand their legal case due to a mental illness.
As a social worker, James’ role encompasses everything from leading meetings and case reviews, coordinating with outside agencies, communicating with the court system, running treatment groups, and providing individual restoration education on the legal system to his patients. “It's a great mix of management/process-oriented work and clinical practice,” James said.
When asked about a patient story that impacted him the most, he shared this: “shortly after opening the new forensic wing we had a deaf individual admitted to our unit. He came to us in rough shape and had a lot of difficulty communicating with jail staff. We were able to provide treatment for his mental illness, arrange in-person interpretation and ultimately reconnect him with his family from out-of-state. A few months after he was released, he reached back out to the team via email to update us that he's doing well and to express gratitude to his team.”
That vignette is just one example of the patients James will impact throughout his career - one life out of many that are changed for the better because of the work he and his team do.
From the Frontlines highlights the people who work for the Office of Civil and Forensic and Mental Health (OCFMH), operates Colorado’s two mental health hospitals, the Forensic Services Division and the Division of Mental Health Transition Living. The office provides a continuum of mental health care that includes pre-trial restoration services, inpatient hospitalization and, soon, transition homes for community-based care.