STRIDE
STRIDE is a nonprofit organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC) whose vision is to help individuals be empowered to live the lives they want through personalized, compassionate healthcare. STRIDE Community Health Center (STRIDE) prides itself in providing low cost healthcare in Colorado. Our network of services is spread across 14 health centers located throughout the metropolitan Denver area, in Adams Arapahoe, Douglas, Jefferson, and Park Counties and in the Cities of Arvada, Aurora, Englewood, Lakewood, Parker, and Wheat Ridge; essentially horseshoeing the city and county of Denver, Colorado. No families or individuals are ever turned away because of their inability to pay. STRIDE’s mission is to Partner with the Community to Provide Excellent, Culturally Sensitive Health Services to Meet the Needs of Each Individual. STRIDE is committed to expanding and creating an infrastructure that provides excellent healthcare and wraparound services to our communities.
About
STRIDE Community Health Center is one of the largest Regional Accountable Entity (RAE) and Medicaid providers in the state. In fiscal year 2023, STRIDE served more than 50,000 individuals; 40% of those served being at or below 100% of federal poverty level. An analysis of recent data revealed nearly 80% of accountable care patients assigned to STRIDE have a behavioral health component to their medical conditions. This highlights the continued need to integrate behavioral health while also addressing primary care needs. STRIDE has evolved over the last two decades to become a leader in providing integrated health care to its patients. As a result, patients with co-occurring disorders have experienced an increase in access to care and better health outcomes.
The Mission of the STRIDE Behavioral Health Team is to support the total health and wellness of individuals by providing collaborative care as a part of an integrated health care team through consultation, counseling, education, and advocacy. The Vision is to promote total wellness by improving behavioral health and relies on innovation, passion, respect, diversity, equality/equity, empowerment, and quality. Behavioral health providers (BHPs) provide the following core services to patients, staff, and the organization:
- Consultation with medical and dental providers;
- One-time encounters with patients in the exam room for resources/referrals or teaching of life skills;
- Meeting with patients before, during, or after a medical appointment for follow-up care;
- Meeting patients outside of medical appointments for individual counseling
- Facilitation of mental health holds and crisis intervention;
- Case management and care coordination
STRIDE collaborates with multiple community partners that provide behavioral health services in the STRIDE service areas. This relationship allows access to a breadth and depth of services and expertise that may not otherwise be available to STRIDE patients in a primary care setting. The enhanced capacity for services at STRIDE allows patients access to immediate behavioral health care all in one location.
Populations Served
In 2023, STRIDE served more than 50,000 patients, with 40% being at or below 100% of the federal poverty level. Almost 50% of patients were best served in a language other than English and 77 different languages were spoken during patient visits that year. In addition, STRIDE served 24% of the Denver Metro Area’s transgender population in 2023.
Eagle County provides a unique field placement opportunity, as a large number of clients are undocumented or temporary visa workers and often encounter gender-based violence in which their immigration status is directly threatened. Additionally, many of our clients experienced substantial, chronic trauma in their country of origin, including terrorism and genocide. Due to our site’s resort community location, we also occasionally have cases directly involving human trafficking.
Internship Experience
Interns at STRIDE are provided with an immersive experience into primary care that highlights the integration of behavioral health and health psychology into a health care delivery system. The majority of the internship focus will be on the delivery of integrated care services to patients and working side by side with medical and dental providers. In addition, there will be opportunity to work with other interdisciplinary departments to provide direct and programmatic services to patients, staff, and community partner organizations. The intern can also expect to be exposed to principles of population health management, community-based care, and health system integration. While training may focus on adult care, there will be opportunities to work with more specific populations such as older adults and pediatrics. Specific medical conditions/populations that will likely be opportunities for concentration include; diabetes, chronic pain/pain management, postpartum, obesity, and hypertension.
Elective Focus
- Crisis counseling and emergency response
- Program development and grant management.
- Life Skill development, grief & loss, and behavioral management
- Suicide prevention training and program leadership
- Special population focus such as diabetes management, chronic pain, geriatrics, pediatric, perinatal, etc.
Faculty
Dave Avram, Ph.D., LP
Primary Supervisor & Site Director
Dr. Avram is the Associate Director of Clinical Training at STRIDE Community Health Centers. Dr. Avram’s goal is to create strong relationships with trainees and provide them with opportunities to learn, grow, and develop into confident clinicians. Between 2019, and 2021, Dr. Avram completed his pre-doctoral psychology internship and post-doctoral psychology fellowship at STRIDE. In 2022, he was hired as a full staff psychologist at STRIDE and joined the psychology training faculty. He functions as a generalist practitioner and works with diverse populations across the developmental spectrum. He commonly treats individuals with anxiety/mood disorders, substance use disorders, complex trauma, and grief. In addition, he has experience and training in health psychology, and commonly works with patients who present with concerns that are informed by health psychology. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is his primary therapeutic modality, but he also utilizes the biopsychosocial model and 3rd wave cognitive theory to inform treatment and case conceptualization. Dr. Avram completed his Ph.D at the University of Colorado, Denver in 2020, and he has continued research interests in the factors that contribute to psychological resilience in underserved populations.