The Douglas County Veterans Service Office will be temporarily closed June 5 through 8, 2023 while staff attends mandatory training.
The Douglas County Veterans Service Office will be temporarily closed June 5 through 8, 2023 while staff attends mandatory training.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allows a variety of expenditures to support the mental and behavioral health needs of Douglas County citizens.
Allowable Investments include:
Known Community Needs
In consultation with Health Management Associates (HMA), Douglas County developed a Blueprint for a Community Based Mental Health System in Douglas County in 2019. The blueprint is built around a stepped approach to the “integration of behavioral health in primary care and expanding services in specialty behavioral health. The blueprint identified areas of need that are consistent with the statewide Needs Assessment.
Identified needs generally fall into three areas of potential investment:
988 Suicide Prevention Hotline
Proposed Investment: $140,000
Description: Operational support for Rocky Mountain Crisis Partners, Colorado’s operator of the Crisis hotline and Suicide Prevention hotline, during its transition to operation of the 988-suicide prevention hotline.
Crisis Stabilization Unit
Proposed Investment: $1,800,000
Description: AllHealth Network proposes the establishment of a behavioral health facility in Douglas County. The proposed facility would consist of a “Walk in Center (WIC) open to all ages and a 10,000 sf. 16-bed Child and Adolescent Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) for ages 5 to 21.” As described in the proposal, the facility would be the first of its kind in Douglas County and would address a known youth mental health need for Douglas County citizens. The requested ARPA allocation would cover start-up costs and operating expenses for the new facility during its initial six months of service provision. After that, AllHealth indicates that the facility operations would be funded through Medicaid revenue and “supplemental funding from the Office of Behavioral Health.”
Care Compact
Proposed Investment: $3,732,000
Description: The Care Compact is a project of the Douglas County Mental Health Initiative that formally links existing care coordination service providers through a streamlined network to serve vulnerable individuals with complex mental health, substance use disorder, and intellectual and developmental disability needs. The Care Compact partner organizations are as follows: Douglas County Administration (The Care Compact Navigator), Douglas County Department of Human Services, Developmental Pathways, Rocky Mountain Human Services, the Community Response Teams, Signal Behavioral Health Network, The Rock Church, Centura Health, HealthONE, All Health Network, Colorado Access, and Julota. By connecting these systems of care, the Care Compact reduces the duplication of services, decreases reliance on emergency and acute care services, reduces criminal justice involvement, removes barriers to care and improves access, prevents gaps in treatment, and streamlines information sharing. With additional funding, TCC can help the network build capacity to serve more Douglas County residents needing enhanced support in meeting their whole-person health needs.
Community Response Team Expansion
Proposed Investment: $1,800,000
Description: The Community Response Team is a unique response team of fire/EMS, law enforcement, and a clinician responding at the scene when mental health is the primary issue. There are four teams, each with a case manager. Expansion to six adult teams (eight teams total) would allow seven-day-a-week coverage, a need repeatedly heard from partners. The expansion would include a second youth CRT to expand coverage to include all schools within the county.
Veterans Mental Health
Proposed Investment: $333,000
Description: The 2020 Colorado Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) Needs Assessment identified veterans as one of the top priority populations in Colorado. Douglas County proposes a multi-county collaborative network to serve veterans with a three-pronged approach:
Information Technology (Julota Case Management)
Proposed Investment: $410,000
Description: Julota provides the case management, data collection and reporting platform for the Community Response Team program, and The Care Compact (TCC). Over time additional expenses are anticipated to effectively manage CRT and TCC caseloads, comply with necessary privacy standards, accommodate a growing network of partners utilizing Julota and to enhance data collection, reporting and communication through data system integration.
View additional information about the Douglas County Mental Health Initiative proposals here.
Suicide Prevention
Investment: $1,500,000
Description: Effective suicide prevention requires multiple approaches with a focus on building protective factors and community capacity to prevent and respond to suicide while reducing risk factors. This proposed investment would be a grant program for evidence-based, research-informed, promising practices and/or innovative approaches for suicide prevention, similar to the non-profit grant program launched by the County with CARES Act dollars in 2020.
We’ve all been affected by loss due to suicide. We know because data continues to show the need for suicide prevention in Douglas County.
To continue the community’s collaborative suicide prevention efforts, the Board of Douglas County Commissioners dedicated $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding in grants for local organizations’ innovative work within suicide prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery.
Click here for more information.
