Colorado’s behavioral health system is highly complex. Services and programs span multiple agencies, objectives, and funding sources. This make it difficult to identify exactly how funds are being spent for children and youth.
The financial map included in this report outlines where state, federal, and other funds are supporting Colorado’s behavioral health system for children and youth. This helps us better understand the system in relation to prevalence, need, utilization, and cost in order to identify opportunities to close gaps and maximize investments.
The children’s subcommittee of the Colorado Behavioral Health Task Force, a group convened in 2019 to evaluate and set the official roadmap to improve behavioral health in Colorado, identified the following questions that guide this report:
- How are state and federal funds currently allocated in Colorado’s child behavioral health delivery system?
- What services are these dollars purchasing, and who are they serving?
- What opportunities exist to close gaps and maximize investments?