(PUEBLO, Colo.) — For people who call Pueblo home, they know the struggle of accessing quality mental health care, among other crucial services like those for substance use disorder.

“I grew up in a community where having lived experience and seeing people struggle with alcoholism, drug addiction, and behavioral health, and not really knowing where to go or having those resources,” Dr. Rob Archuleta said.

This realization inspired Dr. Rob Archuleta, to found his own inpatient drug and alcohol rehab center, Crossroads’ Turning Points, Inc., in Steel City.

“It’s just morphed into understanding behaviors, advocating for people and, you know, just taking a different path to working with as many different people as I can in behavioral health,” Dr. Archuleta said.

But tackling these issues, cannot be done alone.

Now, Pueblo will be the first community in the entire state to play host to Colorado’s newly appointed Behavioral Health Administration Commissioner Dannette R. Smith, whose goal is to strengthen communities and bolster access to care.

“I think the number one thing that I really want to focus on is access,” she said. “There’s a lot of satellite offices around Pueblo. Well, how do we strengthen a person’s ability to access that service right at the time that they need it?”

The first step will begin with a town-hall style meeting on Thursday, August 22, at 5 p.m. at the Pueblo Community College in the Fortino Ballroom where Smith will hear firsthand from community members on what changes they would like to see take place.

“We’re going to be contracting with key providers in the community to ensure that we have a network of providers who can provide real-time support in that community, driven by what the community says their needs are, and being able to provide those services in a timely manner, and where they can access it in their community,” Smith said.

For Puebloans, this boots-on-the-ground approach is a refreshing change of pace that they hope will garner the support they need to make positive changes to the community they call home.

“And so what we want to do is we want to be right there with the BHA as a partner, doing outreach and educating our communities, educating our judges, educating our attorneys, educating our city council, our mayors, so that they understand that addiction it’s a medical [issue], it’s psychiatric, it’s social, it’s everything. And that we can all work to address it together,” Dr. Archuleta said.