Learn about the COMET™ conversation. Join our panelists, Maret Felzien, Kristen Curcija, MPH, and Dr. Jack Westfall, as they present an insightful mental health model designed for rural and agricultural communities that teaches communities how to address difficult issues before they become mental health crises. Developed by the High Plains Research Network, COMET™ (Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory) is a community training that teaches community members how to support a friend or neighbor in a vulnerable space by helping them shift their mental health trajectory back to a place of wellness and away from the path of a mental health crisis. The COMET™ model aligns with rural cultural values of neighbor helping neighbor and communities being their own best resource. The holidays can be stressful, and this conversation reminds us how we can identify those stress points within our community and how we all can be supportive in a natural way to engage a friend, a neighbor, or an acquaintance when you are concerned about their well-being.
Maret Felzien
Maret is a native to northeastern Colorado and recently retired from a long career working to support underserved and underprepared students at the local 2-year college. Currently she assists with the daily operations of the family dry-land farm and cattle ranch. She became involved with community engagement and primary care practice- and community-based research 20 years ago working with High Plains Research Network (HPRN) and its Community Advisory Council. This group informs, advises, and co-creates health research to strengthen primary care across rural eastern Colorado. The research conducted in these rural communities has been fun, meaningful, and successful, and most importantly, has shown positive impact on the health of the communities. Her community engagement work and advocacy has grown from this experience to include work at the state and national level; additionally, she continually collaborates on research teams and with projects as a patient/community voice or leader, an advocate, and even sometimes as a co-investigator in research and primary care advocacy.
Kristen Curcija
Kristen Curcija, MPH, is a Research Services Senior Professional at the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine and has been with the department for over 7 years. Her work focuses on practice-based and public health research, particularly in rural regions. She supports the High Plains Research Network and its Community Advisory Council. Originally from a small town in central Illinois, Kristen enjoys learning about the unique experiences of rural clinics and communities in eastern Colorado because the stories resonate with things she is familiar with. Her research experience and interests include diabetes, loneliness, drug and alcohol screening, treatment for opioid use disorder, and improving mental health in rural communities. Kristen has experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection, management, and analysis through survey administration and key informant interviews. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from Benedictine University and a Bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Kansas State University.
Jack Westfall
Jack Westfall is a family doctor in Colorado. He completed his MD and MPH at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, an internship in hospital medicine in Wichita, Kansas, and his Family Medicine Residency at the University of Colorado Rose Family Medicine Program. After joining the faculty at the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, Dr Westfall started the High Plains Research Network, a geographic community and practice-based research network in rural and frontier Colorado. He practiced family medicine in several rural communities including Limon, Ft Morgan, and his hometown of Yuma, Colorado. He added Medication Assisted Treatment to his clinical care in 2016.The work of the HPRN and its participatory, Community Advisory Council has included funding from the CDC, NIH, AHRQ, and numerous state and local foundations. After retiring from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, he worked for several years as the Director for Whole Person Care at Santa Clara County Health and Hospitals in San Jose, California. He served for several years as the Director of the Robert Graham Center for policy research in primary care and family medicine in Washington DC. He continues to consult and collaborate on primary care practice-based research, community-based participatory research, integrated primary care and behavioral health, and the interface between primary care, public, and community health.
