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Advancing
Colorado’s Mental Health Care is a 5-year, $4 million dollar
joint effort of the Caring for Colorado Foundation, The
Colorado Trust, The Denver Foundation, and Colorado Health Foundation
. The goal of the project is to improve
the integration or coordination of community mental health services, so
that persons with severe mental health needs can be treated with the
services they need most, regardless of agency differences, funding
sources, organizational structures, or variations in policy and
practice. This effort is based on the 2003 comprehensive study of
Colorado’s mental health system entitled The
Status of Mental Health Care In Colorado that
details the crisis situation of Colorado’s current mental
health care systems, noting that only one-third of those who need
treatment receive it, that costs continue to rise as state expenditures
decrease and that care is often inaccessible and inadequate. The study
also found that the mental health care system is unduly fragmented,
which further prevents many people from receiving the care they need.
Six communities across Colorado received
funding through Advancing Colorado’s Mental
Health Care, to integrate mental health systems with the
goals of improving access to and the effectiveness of mental health
services for those most severely affected by mental illness. Funded
projects include:
Denver Public Schools
(DPS) Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems Project aims to change the way the school community currently understands
and addresses children’s mental health. Working with the
Denver Schools’ Health Advisory Council, this grant supports the Counseling and Psychological Services portion of a
coordinated school health program. The efforts include:
- Early identification and treatment
- Evidenced-based, culturally sensitive
interventions
- Intensive intervention for students with
significant needs who might otherwise be placed out-of-district
- School-based resource teams to coordinate
services with community agencies.
Prowers County
Behavioral Health Integration Project integrates and pools community resources to focus on early intervention
and prevention, thus shifting efforts from a reactive to a proactive
approach in addressing behavioral health issues. Primary components of
the project include:
- Evaluation teams made up of
representatives from the full array of youth-serving community services
- School-based health services
- Jail diversion program
- Nurse family partnership supporting new
mothers.
El Paso County
Co-Occurring Disorders Collaboration is using
this grant to develop a new service to provide integrated care
for uninsured adults with co-occurring disorders of mental illness and
substance abuse. Health and human service providers from multiple
agencies provide integrated mental health and substance abuse
services to:
- Improve access and quality of services
- Target resources more flexibly
- Link each consumer with a Resource
Advocate to coordinate the services they need
- Encourage collaborative planning,
evaluation, and accountability among agencies.
Mesa County
Consortium On Health helps individuals
with severe mental illness and their families gain easier access to
primary care, community mental health, employment, education, and other
vital community resources. The Consortium’s four major health
care providers for the uninsured in Mesa County work together with
other agencies to:
- Strengthen connections and integration
between primary and mental health care services
- Reduce barriers to care, including
across languages and cultures
- Better identify individuals who would
benefit from more intensive intervention and integrated care
- Develop intensive supports such as
Wraparound Planning and Assertive Community Treatment.
Health District of
Northern Larimer County aims to restructure
and reorganize services for people with the co-occurring mental illness
and substance abuse disorders. The anticipated result is improved
capacity for integrated mental health and substance abuse services
across the county’s system of care. The project is incorporated into the Community Mental Health and Substance
Abuse Partnership, formed by the county in 1999 as an on-going effort
to improve responsiveness to the mental health needs of the community.
Summit County
Collaborative works to assure that all children in
the county with serious emotional disturbances obtain needed services
so that they may enjoy the highest level of mental health and realize
their developmental, educational, social, and personal goals. The
Collaborative’s diverse membership includes representatives
from mental health and social service agencies, primary care providers,
public health, communities of faith, nonprofit organizations, early
childhood providers, the school district, law enforcement agencies, and
the juvenile justice system. This grant helps the Collaborative
provide integrated and coordinated care to meet the needs of children
with serious emotional disturbances.
Project Coordinator TriWest
Group manages the grants program and provides
technical assistance to funded projects. Both during and at the end of
the five-year grant period, Advancing Colorado’s Mental
Health Care will share information with the mental health care
community about best practices in coordinating and integrating
services.
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