November 2008
This month's updates come from:
- Colorado LINKS for Mental Health
- Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
- EMPOWER Colorado
- The Partnership for Children and Families
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Colorado LINKS for Mental Health
- Each year, LINKS conducts a “Partnership Survey” with state divisions, offices, and units to find out how they are partnering with each other around kids' behavioral health issues, including writing grants together, sitting on each others' boards, sharing the management and financing of programs, and other important activities. This year's results have just been released! To learn more about how over 20 state entities are partnering, please visit http://www.csi-policy.org/links/documents/LINKSOutcomeEvaluationSummaryR4.pdf
For more information, please contact Jewlya Lynn at Jewlya@CSI-Policy.org
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Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
- A Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Colorado Medicaid Community Mental Health Services Program was published on Colorado BIDS, the state's procurement website, on November 6th, 2008. Bidders selected to operate the Mental Health Program in each of the five service areas throughout the state will become the Behavioral Health Organizations (BHOs) responsible for delivering, providing or arranging for the provision of all medically necessary mental health services for clients enrolled in the Program. Bidder proposals are due on January 7, 2009, and notice of award is anticipated in mid-February. The new contract will become effective July 1, 2009.
For more information, please go to the Colorado BIDS system at http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/dfp/spo/index.htm?opendocument.
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EMPOWER Colorado
- Are you working with families who would like to know more about kids with MH and brain disorders? Help build family capacity in the children’s behavioral health system in Colorado by referring them to this exciting opportunity. EMPOWER Colorado, whose mission is to provide support, education and resources for advocacy for parents and families of children and youth with brain disorders and mental health issues, has a seven week course entitled “Empowering Families through the Diagnostic Journey.”
For more information, please contact Cheri Bena at 866-213-4631, or go to www.empowercolorado.com
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The Partnership for Children and Families
- The Colorado Foundation for Families and Children would like stakeholders in children’s behavioral health to know that it has a new name. It is now called The Partnership for Families and Children. The Partnership's early childhood mental health goals are to: provide training and technical assistance to stakeholder workgroups related to positive social, emotional and behavioral health for young children; assist in the development of organizational strategies to achieve positive outcomes by integrating mental health, primary health and early education; and work with organizations to develop an infrastructure for high fidelity implementation of evidence-based practices through research and evaluation.
For more information, please contact Abby English Waldbaum at aewaldbaum@pffac.org or go to www.ppfac.org
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To be included in next month's LINKING YOU, please send us your planning or organization group's name, contact info, up to three bullets of one sentence each, and where possible, a link to more information.
Brought to you by the Colorado LINKS for Mental Health Initiative. For more information about the Initiative, please contact Jewlya Lynn at Jewlya@CSI-Policy.org.
