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Mental Health Intervention in Colorado
Mental health intervention in Colorado, where a family can ask the court first.
Colorado rewrote its civil commitment law, renamed the old M-1 hold, and kept a separate court path for substance use. Here is what each one does, which ones a family can start, and where a planned, voluntary conversation belongs.
Many Colorado families still say “M-1.” The form name stuck even after the legislature recodified Title 27, Article 65 and began calling the process an emergency mental health hold. The name matters less than the shape: a hold is short, and what follows it is usually a discharge.
Colorado gives families two unusual levers. Any individual can ask a district court to order an evaluation, and a relative can petition for court-ordered substance use treatment. G3 helps you decide whether either one fits, and prepares the voluntary route that families tend to try first, paid by your family and no one else.
If tonight is not safe
Call 911 for a weapon, an overdose, violence or a suicide attempt in progress. For a mental health crisis short of that, call or text 988; in Colorado it connects to 988 Colorado, which the state describes as free, immediate human support around the clock, with walk-in crisis locations across the state. Planning can wait until everyone is safe.
Title 27, Article 65
The emergency mental health hold, step by step
Colorado’s 2022 overhaul, HB 22-1256, took effect July 1, 2023. Under the rewritten section 27-65-106, an intervening professional or a certified peace officer may take a person into custody on probable cause when the person appears to have a mental health disorder and, because of it, appears to be an imminent danger to others or to themselves, or gravely disabled.
The person goes to a facility designated by the Behavioral Health Administration “for a seventy-two-hour treatment and evaluation.” When no designated facility is available, the law allows an emergency medical services facility instead. The BHA explains on its involuntary mental health treatment page that designated facilities are those it has approved to treat mental health disorders, and that the system is meant to favor voluntary services and involve family when appropriate.
Within that window, the treating team decides whether to discharge, convert to voluntary treatment, or seek certification. Discharge is common. That is not a failure of the system; it simply means the person did not meet a narrow legal test on that day.
A route a family can start: the court-ordered evaluation
This is the provision Colorado families most often do not know exists. Section 27-65-106 states that “any individual may petition the court in the county in which the respondent resides or is physically present.” The petition alleges that the person appears to have a mental health disorder and, as a result, appears to be a danger to others, a danger to self, or gravely disabled.
The Colorado Judicial Branch publishes the form, JDF 590, Petition for Court-Ordered Screening and Evaluation, filed in district court (or the Denver Probate Court). It asks for your relationship to your loved one and your interest in the case, and it is signed under penalty of perjury. The same 2022 law made filing a malicious or false petition a matter for criminal prosecution, so write only what you have seen and heard.
A signed order leads to screening and evaluation, not automatic hospitalization. If you are weighing this step, our guide to involuntary psychiatric pathways compares it with other states, and we will tell you plainly when a Colorado attorney should be in the conversation. We are not one.
After the evaluation
Certification, and the outpatient option built into it.
Up to three months
Section 27-65-109 lets a person be certified for short-term treatment “for not more than three months,” with an extended certification of up to three more months. Certification is a professional and court process; families supply history but do not sign it.
Six-month orders
Under section 27-65-110, a court may order long-term care and treatment “for a term not to exceed six months,” and each extension is capped at six months, though extensions may repeat.
Certified, but living at home
Since January 1, 2024, section 27-65-111 lets a certified person receive treatment on an outpatient basis. If they stop treatment and are decompensating, the court can order transport back to a facility.
No separate family petition
Colorado has no stand-alone assisted outpatient treatment statute of the Kendra’s Law type. Court-ordered outpatient care here runs through certification, which a treating professional starts.
Substance use has its own article in Colorado law, and the rules differ in ways families should know before choosing a route. The BHA’s substance use commitment page lays out two stages.
Emergency commitment under section 27-81-111 lasts up to five days (120 hours). Any adult with first-hand knowledge of the behavior can apply to a licensed withdrawal management program, the person must be present, and they must be intoxicated or incapacitated and dangerous to their own or others’ health and safety. Back-to-back emergency commitments are not allowed.
Involuntary commitment under section 27-81-112 requires a court order and an emergency commitment first. The statute lists a spouse, guardian, relative, physician, advanced practice nurse, treatment facility administrator or “any other responsible person” as petitioners, sets an initial period of up to 90 days, and allows two recommitments; the BHA describes the total as up to 270 days. A contested petition is heard within ten days, excluding weekends and holidays.
Two cautions from the BHA itself: no program used for these commitments is locked, and federal privacy rules mean the agency cannot share treatment details with the family unless your loved one signs a release. A person also cannot be on a substance use emergency commitment and a mental health hold at the same time.
When alcohol or drugs drive the crisis: Article 81
Choosing among the routes, and the one that compels nothing
Every legal path above asks one question: is the danger great enough today to override a choice? A planned intervention asks a different one: what would make a yes possible? In Colorado we see families combine them in three ways.
Voluntary first. Your loved one is clearly unwell (not sleeping, convinced of something untrue, missing work) but not dangerous by any legal measure. A rehearsed family conversation, with a psychiatric program already confirmed, is usually the only realistic route, and it spends no trust.
Prepared for escalation. We build the voluntary plan while the family understands JDF 590 and the Article 81 petition, so that if risk climbs nobody is reading statutes at midnight.
After a hold ends. A 72-hour evaluation closes with a discharge, and we use the following days, while the experience is still vivid, to offer the next level of care. Our guide to psychiatric levels of care explains residential, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient options, and our piece on co-occurring conditions covers why we usually address the psychiatric illness first when both are present.
What families can do, and what only professionals can
You can call 911 or 988, petition a district court for a screening and evaluation, apply for a substance use emergency commitment at a withdrawal management program, petition for involuntary substance use treatment after one, and ask your loved one to sign a release so the treating team can talk with you.
You cannot place an emergency mental health hold yourself, certify someone for short-term or long-term treatment, or require outpatient treatment on your own. Those belong to intervening professionals, certified peace officers, treating clinicians and the court. Your influence there is the history you provide, which is why a written timeline of what you have seen is worth preparing now.
Hannah, our case manager, helps families build that timeline: hospitalizations, medications tried, the week things changed. It serves a court petition, an admissions team or an intervention equally well.
Colorado crisis lines, directories and licensing
911 for immediate danger. 988 by call or text for a mental health crisis; in Colorado this reaches the 988 Colorado Mental Health Line, with live chat at 988Colorado.com and walk-in crisis locations in the Metro Denver, Northeast, Southeast and Western Slope regions, according to the BHA’s get-help page.
Finding care. The same page points to the state’s OwnPath care directory and to Colorado LIFTS care navigators at 1-844-CO-LIFTS (265-4387), searchable with or without insurance.
Licensing. The BHA issues the Behavioral Health Entity license and the 27-65 designation that a facility needs to hold someone involuntarily; its licensing and designation page also notes that recovery residence oversight moves to direct BHA licensing, with applications accepted from May 1, 2027. We confirm license and designation before recommending any program.
Substance use commitments. The BHA’s involuntary commitment team answers questions at (303) 866-7502, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time, and is clear that it is not a crisis line.
Getting to Colorado, and getting your loved one to care
G3 is based in Austin, Texas. Preparation starts by phone and video the day you call, and Matt flies in for the intervention, usually through Denver International (DEN), Colorado Springs (COS) or Grand Junction (GJT) for the Western Slope. Mountain passes close in winter, so we build a weather margin into the date. Someone in a psychiatric crisis should never travel alone to a program, and our sober transport companions stay until admission is complete. Families spread across several states can read our guide to interstate intervention logistics, and our Colorado interventionist page covers substance use intervention across the state.
The fee is flat and written before you commit. Travel is billed at actual cost and transport is quoted on its own line, and because no program pays us, our treatment navigation points only where the clinical need does.
Common questions
Colorado families ask us about holds and petitions.
Is an M-1 hold the same as an emergency mental health hold?
Can a parent or spouse start the process in Colorado?
How long can Colorado require psychiatric treatment after a hold?
Can we commit someone for drug or alcohol use in Colorado?
Why did the hospital release my loved one after a day or two?
Will a planned intervention work if they do not think they are ill?
Keep reading
Colorado pages and guides for the next step
The next step is a conversation
You do not have to figure this out alone.
One confidential call with G3 begins it. No pressure, no judgment, just a path forward.