NaphCare and Mesa County Sheriff's Office Celebrate SUD Program Graduation, Art Competition, and Continued State Funding

Jail Based Behavioral Services program marks a season of milestones — including one participant's path from detention lobby to children's book illustrator

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Recently a group of men and women inside the Mesa County Detention Facility graduated from the facility's Substance Use Disorder (SUD) program, one milestone in the broader Jail Based Behavioral Health Services (JBBS) initiative delivered through a partnership between the Mesa County Sheriff's Office and NaphCare, a leading correctional healthcare provider. The program is designed to jumpstart the recovery journey and help the patient prepare for a healthy, prosocial transition into the community after release.

The graduation included an art contest, recognizing participants who used drawing as a creative and therapeutic tool to culminate and celebrate their accomplishment of the program's twelve-week curriculum. The art contest has become a welcome and highly anticipated tradition in the JBBS program in recent years, and a new Mesa County Jail Art Competition was also announced at the ceremony, opening the opportunity to the next cohort of participants.

The art program's impact extends beyond graduation. Victor Jackson, a self-taught artist and JBBS participant who was featured in local news coverage last December, has been invited by a local children's book author to serve as the illustrator for her upcoming book through an arrangement approved by the Sheriff's Office.

“If they are given the tools and the resources while they’re here, hopefully they can continue on and find places that’ll help them outside of the door and give them those resources to keep on the road to sobriety,” said Michele Wilkie, NaphCare’s Director of JBBS.

“The JBBS program is an invaluable tool for incarcerated individuals who suffer from addictions to learn the root causes, individual triggers, and methods to reduce the potential for relapse,” said Mesa County Sheriff's Office Division Chief Henry Stoffel. “The JBBS staff is very passionate about the information they provide and are an immense asset to the facility and individuals they work with."

Supporting the program's future, Colorado's Behavioral Health Administration has awarded a $674,000 grant to continue funding jail-based behavioral health services through June 2027. The funding sustains substance use disorder, opioid use disorder, and mental health services for people in custody. The program serves roughly 150 to 225 clients per week, often more than half of the facility's population.

About NaphCare

At NaphCare, we believe in innovating to improve lives. As both a health services and technology company, NaphCare partners with local, state and federal government agencies nationwide to provide proactive, patient-focused healthcare and technology solutions, including medical and behavioral health care, pharmaceuticals, dialysis clinics, third-party administrative services and a corrections-specific electronic health record (EHR), TechCare. Above all, we aim to make a positive impact in the communities we serve.