Our Recent Work

Colorado families struggle to meet the behavioral health (BH) needs of their children. These needs span the full continuum from screening and referral to targeted prevention, integrated services, outpatient, intensive home- and community-based services, and residential care. Many challenges exist, including multiple funding sources, lack of program collaboration, geographical disparities in service availability, and too few providers, especially for children who are multi-system involved. In an effort to improve this fragmented system to better support children and their families, state agencies are implementing new initiatives, and the Colorado legislature has passed several laws.  One such bill, SB19-195 Child and Youth Behavioral Health System Enhancements, championed several activities designed to improve the child and youth serving system by ensuring state entities “collaborate with one another” and better serve children and youth at risk of out-of-home placement due to BH conditions. 

A critical component of SB19-195, directs the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) to design and put forth recommendations for a child and youth BH delivery system pilot program that integrates funding for BH intervention and treatment services across the state to serve children and youth with BH disorders. HCPF selected the Farley Health Policy Center (FHPC) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center to perform the work, which sub-contracted with the Colorado Health Institute (CHI) to assist with stakeholder engagement activities. This report and appendices outlines the considerations, stakeholder engagements, and policy changes that have led to the following recommendations: 1) the state should focus on aligning funding design changes in new initiatives planned or already underway and 2) the state should not move forward at this time with a joint funding pilot.