Reducing unnecessary and counterproductive ER visits is one mission of Mi Esperanza, a small wellness center run by a behavioral-health group in Alamosa. The goal is to give people in crisis everything they need, including breathing exercises to calm anxiety, talk therapy to handle tough emotions, and case managers to help with life logistics.

Just as important is what you won’t find at Mi Esperanza: no needles, no harsh lights, no armed police officers.

“The idea is you could come in here and no matter how you’re feeling, we have something for you … that will help soothe,” said Rick Esquibel, a certified addiction counselor who works at the center.

You might walk right past the unremarkable concrete building that houses Mi Esperanza a few blocks off Alamosa’s main drag. Couches line the big living room inside. The name, “Mi Esperanza,” is Spanish for “my hope.”

In one therapy room, a waist-high pile of pillows fills an entire corner. The words “I want to be happy and safe” are scrawled in a child’s handwriting on a nearby chalkboard. A simple, blue-ink drawing of a hot rod, made by a middle-aged man, lies on a table. Coloring helps even the toughest adults calm down and express their feelings, said Esquibel, the addiction counselor. Five mental-health clinicians and two case managers staff the center. A former Marine works security, but wears civilian clothes.

The facility, which opened late in 2014, is attracting a growing clientele. This May, Mi Esperanza served 28 visitors—20 more than it hosted in May 2015. Some stay for 30 minutes; others linger for hours. So far this year, the staff has referred three patients to the ER, deciding they needed regular medical care.

Mi Esperanza and other so-called “crisis living rooms” are part of an emerging movement to decrease the inappropriate use of ERs. In 2015, Colorado Springs’ mobile crisis response team brought 564 people experiencing mental-health or substance-abuse-related problems to that city’s crisis living room. In the past two years, similar facilities have opened in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Pueblo and Grand Junction.

Some mental-health crises could be better addressed by providing support and resources, exactly as crisis living rooms seek to do, said Barbara Harris, a DePaul University nursing professor who has studied living-room programs. In a recent study of one facility near Chicago, Harris spoke with a patient who equated hospitals’ heavy-handed treatment of mental-health conditions to using a nuclear weapon to kill a small animal. Sometimes people don’t need emergency medical care; they just need to talk to a counselor.

Some ERs are creating special sections for people with mental health conditions, away from sights and sounds that might further upset them, Harris said. But living-room advocates want to keep those people out of the ER in the first place.