Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group has been renamed AspenPointe Inc. as part of a major rebranding campaign to unify the 12 agencies that operate under it and give the public a better understanding of the varied services it offers.

The dozen agencies have also been renamed to get AspenPointe into their title and better reflect what they do, spokesman Kevin Porter,  said Tuesday.

“We had 12 organizations under different names. All were under the Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group umbrella, but with all the different names, it was not clear that they all were connected,” he said.

Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group, which operates on a $51 million budget, paid a North Carolina  branding company $36,000 to help develop a new name. AspenPointe was chosen from about 200  options, receiving “unanimous support from our board of directors and executive staff,” according to the agency’s website. The new name went into effect with a soft launch on Monday. 

Although mental health services will continue to be a mainstay for AspenPointe, none of the agencies have “mental health” in their new names. AspenPointe officials say that’s intentional for several reasons.

First, AspenPointe does more than offer mental health services. It has job training and jail diversion programs, and works with at-risk youth and people who aren’t mentally ill.

And Porter said that many of the nonprofit’s clients prefer to leave “mental health” out of the name.

“We went out and talked to clients — a lot are mental health clients  — and a lot of them said they didn’t like ‘mental health’ in the name of an organization where they’re seeking treatment because of the stigma attached to it,” Porter said.

Even AspenPointe’s flagship, Pikes Peak Mental Health, is being renamed AspenPointe Health Services  to reflect what agency officials believe is a future of more integrated health care.

Beyond adopting new names, Porter said, the rebranding campaign has led to more than two dozen other projects that include the consolidation of phone lines and websites.

It also prompted a lot of reflection on what AspenPointe’s agencies have in common and how its nearly 500 employees work with each other.

“Previously, we were 12 different organizations doing our own thing,” Porter said. “Now we have a common vision. We can move forward making sure that clients who walk in one door have access to all our other services.”

The rebranding comes at a time when those who work in social services bemoan a lack of mental health services in the Pikes Peak area. On its website, AspenPointe said it anticipates increased demand for mental health services. “We continue to make major investments in these areas,” the site says.

The name game
 Before-and-after names of Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group and its operations:
 • Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group ­— AspenPointe Inc.
 • Pikes Peak Mental Health –  AspenPointe Health Services
 • Pikes Peak Foundation for Mental Health –  AspenPointe Foundation
 • Pikes Peak Mental Health Medicaid LLC –  AspenPointe Medicaid LLC
 • Pikes Peak Mental Health Select Services, Inc.  –  AspenPointe Properties
 • Aspen Diversified Industries –  AspenPointe Employment
 • Aspen Diversified Industries Services –  AspenPointe Enterprises
 • Workout, Ltd. –  AspenPointe Youth Directions
 • Connect Care – AspenPointe Health Network
 • ProCare – AspenPointe TeleCare LLC
• Colorado Counseling Network, Inc. – AspenPointe Management Inc.
• Coal Construction – AspenPointe Builders LLC
• Café Moreno* – AspenPointe Café

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/health-103198-behavioral-peak.html#ixzz0wz1ArkIC