Mental Health Colorado will recognize the recently retired Evans police chief with the Legacy Award for his dedication to addressing the opioid crisis.
Rick Brandt, who retired from the Evans Police Department in March, received the Legacy Award for more than 40 years of work to reduce the harms of the opioid crisis and leading changes within law enforcement agencies, according to a Mental Health Colorado news release.
Brandt became the police chief in 2007. Before moving to Evans, he worked at the Aurora Police Department for 26 years.
Throughout his law enforcement career, he has led efforts to advocate for crisis mitigation, co-responder programs, medication-assisted treatment in jails and increased access to life-saving overdose reversal medications like naloxone, also known as Narcan, the release said.
“Putting this medication in officers’ hands can save someone’s life,” Brandt said in a Lift the Label story from the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration. “Some people in the policing community resist this. They have a mindset of, ‘Why am I saving someone who makes such risky decisions over and over?’ To those folks, I remind them that they took an oath to protect life. Naloxone does just that.”
Every year, Mental Health Colorado honors lawmakers and advocates with the Legislators and Advocates of the Year awards for their commitment to “promoting healthier minds across the lifespan” in the state, according to the release. Vincent Atchity, president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado, looks forward to celebrating Brandt and the additional 2025 award winners on Tuesday, during Mental Health Awareness Month.
“Our awardees each year have been leading the way in making essential course corrections to adjust how Colorado and Coloradans apply efforts and resources to yield improved health outcomes and greater efficiencies,” Atchity said in the release.
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