New collaboration will pair Maria Droste Counseling Center’s 60 independent practitioners with qualifying artists
By John Moore
The Denver Actors Fund has announced a major new collaboration to help Colorado theatre artists struggling with anxiety, depression and prolonged stress as the unprecedented COVID19 shutdown drags on.
The DAF is now working with the Maria Droste Counseling Center of Colorado to provide affordable, professional health care to any qualifying local artist who needs it. “Our driving goal is to eliminate affordability as a barrier to getting mental-health care,” said DAF Board President Chris Gibley.
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Maria Droste is a cohort of more than 60 independent therapists from a wide range of disciplines who provide access to mental health care for the underserved, while also serving as a training institute for newly licensed psychotherapists.
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered at least two simultaneous public-health emergencies: The lethal virus, and a longer-term mental-health crisis. The virus has unleashed a perfect storm of mental-health challenges that are impacting Americans from every walk of life, said Boulder psychotherapist Nancy Portnoy. At a time when people are feeling anxious about their own health, their job security and the well-being of loved ones, necessary social distancing has separated many from their critical emotional support systems.
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Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, professional identities and income, leaving many experiencing everything from extreme isolation to anger to sleep deprivation to suicidal tendencies. Many metropolitan areas are reporting spikes in domestic abuse. Isolation, experts say, also leads to increased alcohol and drug abuse.
That’s why it’s not just nice to have someone to talk to right now, said Portnoy. It’s essential.
“It is natural for people to be feeling angry or hopeless right now, “Portnoy said. “The problem is that people usually wait until everything is on fire to get help. It’s always better to go and unload with someone who will listen in a safe environment.”
In a recent statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: “Coping with stress in a healthy way will make you, the people you care about, and your community stronger.”
Under the initial pilot program, called CATS (Co-Pay Assistance for Therapy Service), artists need only fill out a brief application form on The Denver Actors Fund website. Any artist who has worked in a creative capacity on the making of a play or musical for a credible Colorado theatre company in the past five years, and has lived in Colorado for at least six of the past 12 months, will qualify. The DAF will then refer the qualifying artist to Maria Droste for initial screening and pairing with an appropriate mental-health professional. Maria Droste will assess the patient’s financial means and insurance coverage and then determine how much of the counseling fee each individual patient is able to pay. The DAF will cover the rest. Sessions may take place in-person or via teledoctoring, depending on a variety of factors.
Maria Droste encourages anyone with family members who otherwise would not qualify for the DAF program to reach out directly to Maria Droste for possible assistance. (call 303-867-4600 or email intake@mariadrsote.org.)
“We are committed to providing high-quality mental-health services for everyone regardless of ability to pay,” said Maria Droste CEO Sandra Mann. “Mental health is not a luxury.”
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This new collaboration grew out of a brainstorming session between Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado Producing Ensemble Director Stephen Weitz and two of his most loyal supporters – Portnoy and her husband, Joel Silverman, both of Maria Droste. Both are also actors in the local theatre community; Silverman recently played Grandpa in the Aurora Fox’s “Caroline, Or Change,” and Howard in Firehouse Theater Company’s “The Mystery of Love and Sex.”
“We had been talking before COVID about how The Denver Actors Fund can play a part in helping those in our theatre community who are struggling with mental-health issues,” said Gibley. “Now, during these very trying times, there has never been a more pressing need to help. Then, all of a sudden, Maria Droste reached out to us to help. These are professionals who love the theatre and the talented people who fill our lives with emotion, remembrance and hope. We are so grateful.”
As lifelong proponents of the performing arts, Silverman and Portnoy quickly realized artists would make for a particularly vulnerable community when the national shutdown on public gatherings began. Most artists not only lost potential income from their theatre projects, but also their supplemental income sources from part-time jobs in bars and restaurants.
“Theatre artists are experiencing a sense of trauma, of grief, of shock, of a loss of identity and a loss of community,” Portnoy said. “All of that came to a screeching stop on March 13. And now they are struggling with a real fear of the unknown, with no real sense of how to keep going.”
But the timing for this new collaboration, Portnoy said, “is really perfect, especially because so many of these artists are just now losing their $600 a week unemployment boost.”
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To request further information, please email denveractorsfund@gmail.com.
John Moore is a longtime local arts journalist and the co-founder of The Denver Actors Fund, which in seven years has made $900,000 available to Colorado theatre artists in need since 2013.