Southern and eastern Coloradans accessed behavioral health care services more often than people in any other regions in the state last year and may become a focus for state leaders working to improve the mental health system.
The new data was published this week when the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration launched an online portal that aims to increase transparency and accountability and help the administration offer better care to Coloradans who need it during the coming years.
So far, the administration’s Performance Hub has data showing who is accessing services statewide and information about how to file complaints about providers licensed by the agency.
Over time, more data will be added to help identify gaps in care, make systemic improvements and address health care inequities, administration leaders said earlier this week.
“When it comes to transforming behavioral health, we and all of our partners across the state have to know where we’re at to know where we must go to improve behavioral health care — and the Performance Hub is an important tool at the BHA to increase visibility and understanding of behavioral health care in Colorado,” said Christen Lara, division director of technology and data at the Behavioral Health Administration.
“It provides information for people to learn what mental health and substance use disorder access looks like statewide, how it varies in different counties over time and how that changes based on the age of people receiving services — to see if the direction we’re headed in is where we want to go as a state or if it’s signaling that we need to make policy changes at the local, state or federal level.”
The Behavioral Health Administration was launched two years ago, when the state and the country were managing a growing mental health crisis that began during the pandemic.
The aim was to ensure all Coloradans have access to quality mental health and substance use disorder services, regardless of where they live, or their ability to pay, while also reducing stigma, so that people feel comfortable seeking support and treatment, among many other things.
The law that created the administration required it to establish a monitoring system, on or before July 1, to track capacity of such services and performance of all behavioral health providers and inform needed changes within the system.
The law requires the administration to set minimum standards for treatment such as by making rules about the availability and timeliness of behavioral health care services.
The measure also requires the administration to publish accountability reports and other data on its website.
The data
The Performance Hub currently includes information about the number of people who have received publicly funded community mental health services in each county per year, the number of residential beds for substance use disorder treatment in Colorado by county and the number of complaints made to the administration annually about behavioral health services.
More than 112,000 people received care at community-based mental health centers or specialty clinics statewide in 2023 and just over 51,000 Coloradans got substance use disorder services that were funded by the Behavioral Health Administration.
The San Luis Valley and several counties in eastern Colorado were among those with the highest numbers of residents who received publicly funded community mental health services in 2023.
Lake and Logan counties and several counties in southern Colorado were among those that had the highest numbers of residents who received addiction services funded by or overseen by the administration last year.
The state may need to increase the number of residential beds available for people with substance use disorders living in rural areas, according to the preliminary data.
On average, 397 beds were available at residential treatment facilities for people with substance use disorders from July 2023 through April.
However, 50 out of 64 counties have no beds available for people with substance use disorders.
Most beds are clustered in Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson and Weld counties, with some available in Pueblo, Baca, Bent and Las Animas counties. Mesa County is the only place on the Western Slope where there are beds at residential treatment facilities for people with addiction.
“That level of care is essential for people living with certain conditions and what this map shows is what we already knew, which is that access is scarce, particularly in the rural counties, which means a lot of individuals and families are just going without the care,” said Vincent Atchity, president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado.
Similarly, the number of Coloradans who received community-based mental health services declined in many counties from 2022 to 2023, according to the Performance Hub.
“This is going in the wrong direction,” Atchity said. “Why are access numbers poorer?”
Behavioral Health Administration leaders said they plan to study data published on the site in the coming months and years to improve care statewide.
The Performance Hub elevates the option for Coloradans to make complaints about providers licensed by the administration. There were 64 complaints made during the first three months of this year, up from 43 complaints, during the same period in 2023.
The Behavioral Health Administration investigates complaints, which can include concerns about mistreatment, denied services, poor quality of care, injuries, abuse or neglect and treatment errors.
“Highlighting complaints is a very positive indicator to us, because if folks are having negative experiences receiving behavioral health services, they need to know where to go to tell us, so that we can do something about it,” said Jordan Bass, director of data science at the Behavioral Health Administration. “That is unique data special to the Performance Hub.”
Data included on the hub so far is collected by the administration and reports from the All Payer Claims Database.
The Performance Hub will be updated quarterly, and new metrics will appear on the portal by the end of July.
Improving the behavioral health care system
The Behavioral Health Administration will host public conversations in the coming months to help people learn to use the tool. Those dates will be published on the Behavioral Health Administration’s calendar soon.
“It’s important for a public system to have this kind of visibility to show how it’s improving access for people,” Atchity said. “And for our purposes, as advocates, it’s handy — if we can trust this to be thorough and comprehensive.”
Mental Health Colorado leaders recently released Know Your Rights information for Coloradans who need mental health and substance use services.
Making that kind of information available to people who use the Performance Hub could clarify how Coloradans can respond if they suspect they’re facing discrimination or that their health insurance won’t cover certain mental health services, for example, Atchity said.
“The main thing that people are looking for that they’re not going to find on this site, as it is, is a pathway to care,” Atchity said.
On Wednesday morning, the Behavioral Health Administration said an online portal it created, OwnPath, directs Coloradans to care.
Coloradans can complete a short survey to help the state improve the Performance Hub and can watch the site evolve online.