DENVER (Aug. 6, 2020) - In a unanimous vote, the Colorado Behavioral Health Task Force (BHTF) passed a recommendation to create a new behavioral health administration, part of the bold work the BHTF has been working on for more than a year. This is one step toward ensuring high-quality, integrated, people-centered behavioral health care services. The recommendation will be part of Colorado's Behavioral Health Blueprint, a roadmap to major transformation, which will be issued later this summer.
"We're working toward a way of reaching people in their time of great need," said Gov. Jared Polis. "This is a major step in the right direction for making Colorado's behavioral health system the best in the nation and for consumers."
"The task force continues to focus on solutions that put people first," said BHTF chair and CDHS Executive Director Michelle Barnes. "More than 1 million Coloradans have a behavioral health condition, and we will not stop this work until we feel confident the governor has a plan from us to move forward with."
This administration will transform the current behavioral health system by:
- Putting people first
- Eliminating fragmentation
- Promoting transparency
- Offering a streamlined and efficient approach
- Minimizing the burden to providers so they can focus on client services
The behavioral health administration would oversee all non-Medicaid government community behavioral health dollars and programs in Colorado. Currently, Colorado's behavioral health system includes $1.4 billion in funding that is spread out across 10 state agencies and more than 75 programs, which results in potentially duplicative programs that are trying to serve the same groups of Coloradans with behavioral health needs. The behavioral health administration would oversee behavioral health services to ensure that services respond to and meet Coloradans' needs.
This is an opportunity to increase the number of Coloradans receiving the behavioral health services they need, the behavioral health administration would consolidate the state's tools into one entity that has the authority and consolidated funding to address. The behavioral health administration would monitor state and local data to understand Coloradans' needs and trends, and evaluate state efforts to provide high-quality behavioral health access to all Coloradans.
On April 8, 2019, Gov. Jared Polis directed CDHS to spearhead Colorado's Behavioral Health Task Force. The mission of the task force is to evaluate and set the roadmap to improve the current behavioral health system in the state. The task force is administered by CDHS.
Media contact:
Madlynn Ruble, Deputy Director of Communications
madlynn.ruble@state.co.us
303.866.3411