Northeast counties awarded $1M grant for behavioral health
Colorado Department of Human Services, Office of Behavioral Health announced Dec. 30 that $9 million in funding has been awarded to county departments of human or social services across the state. The funding is for the expansion or improvement of local or regional behavioral health disorder treatment programs.
Among the groups receiving funding were northeast Colorado county departments of human services — Kit Carson, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Morgan, Washington, Yuma, Elbert, Lincoln and Cheyenne — which together received $1,080,984.
These departments will be creating the first Multisystemic Therapy team in the northeast region and will be adding two Functional Family Therapy clinicians dedicated to these counties.
MST and FFT are two of the evidence-based services included in Colorado’s mental health service array that are eligible for Family First Prevention Services Act prevention reimbursement.
Adding access to these services for families in the northeast region will address one of the biggest behavioral health continuum of care gaps in the region — intensive in-home support for youth at risk of out-of-home placement, recidivism or further penetration into systems due to behaviors.
In Colorado, 18 proposals were awarded funding, ranging from $90,640 to $1,080,984, through a competitive application process.
The county behavioral health grant program was established through Senate Bill 21-137 to provide grants to counties for purposes including peer training, augmentation of direct therapy, acute treatment units, inpatient treatment programs, outreach and education, navigation or care coordination, capital investments in the behavioral health infrastructure, services for individuals who do not speak English, culturally responsive and attuned services, suicide prevention and intervention, crisis response, workforce development, supporting regional service delivery or other purposes that would expand behavioral health programs.
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