CommunityConnections: 2005 Winter Edition - Trust News - The Colorado Trust

New Mental Health Care Project

Advancing Colorado's Mental Health Care logoThe Colorado Trust recently joined together with three other Colorado foundations in a project designed to better meet the needs of Coloradans with severe mental illnesses. Advancing Colorado's Mental Health Care is a five-year, $4.1 million joint effort of the Caring for Colorado Foundation, The Colorado Trust, The Denver Foundation and HealthONE Alliance. This collaborative effort stems from the 2003 report, The Status of Mental Health Care in Colorado, which examined the crisis situation in Colorado's mental health care system. The report was commissioned by the Mental Health Funders Collaborative, which was comprised of eight foundations that came together to gain a better understanding of the way Colorado addresses mental health care needs.

According to the report, only one-third of those who need mental health treatment in Colorado currently receive it, the care is often inaccessible and inadequate, and costs continue to rise as state expenditures decrease. To address these issues, the Advancing Colorado's Mental Health Care Project will support the "integration" of mental health services in up to 10 Colorado communities.

Integration means coordinating treatment across agencies. Currently, a patient with a behavioral or mental health diagnosis may receive care from a variety of different, disconnected sources such as human services, criminal justice, the school system, a primary care doctor and community mental health services. This non-integrated type of care often results in poor mental health outcomes for the patient and frustration for family members and caregivers. The project's goal is to help persons with mental illness be treated across agencies, regardless of the agency funding sources, organizational structures or policy and practice differences.

Communities selected to participate in this project will be chosen through a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) process. The RFP will be released in spring 2005. A search is currently underway to hire a Project Coordinator for this effort. For more information about Advancing Colorado's Mental Health Care, go to www.coloradotrust.org, or contact Carol Breslau, Vice President for Initiatives at The Colorado Trust.