Our Work
Colorado SIM increased access to integrated health care around the state. But its biggest success might have been the spirit of collaboration it fostered.
Last week, President Trump signed a new law aimed at addressing the opioid epidemic: The Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, or SUPPORT Patients and Communities Act.
August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day: a day to remember those who who’ve lost their lives as a result of a drug overdose, reflect on efforts to address the issue, and advance policies to prevent more from dying in the future.
New data show that the number of people dying due to fentanyl and other prescription opioids is continuing to increase.
Last year, 17,000 Coloradans received behavioral health services that they wouldn’t have otherwise. That’s thanks to $3.9 million from the Colorado Health Access Fund, administered by The Denver Foundation.
Colorado's suicide rate is one of the nation's highest. Legislators have considered several bills related to preventing suicides this year.
Team CHI traveled throughout Colorado to identify the best ideas and programs for preventing youth from using and abusing substances for a new report commissioned by the Office of Behavioral Health.
You know you’re a health policy nerd when the back-and-forth action of this spring’s NCAA basketball tournament reminds you of public health legislation in Colorado. Wondering how action on the court translates to action at the state Capitol? I’ll explain.
Republicans and Democrats have taken turns advancing their offensive playbooks by introducing public health bills over the past couple years. But opponents have played solid defense, blocking the easy lay up to the governor’s desk.
More Coloradans have been dying of drug overdoses each year for nearly a decade. It’s a health crisis that’s been increasingly in the public eye, but the newest data are still startling: Some 912 people died of an overdose in 2016 – a state record. Preliminary data from 2017 suggest that more than 950 died of an overdose last year.
Between 2012 and early 2017, I was part of a policy team at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that helped to advise then-Secretary Sylvia Burwell on a wide range of health policy topics, including the best available evidence to combat the opioid epidemic.
It was an important task. Drug overdose deaths claimed more than 52,000 lives in the U.S. in 2015 alone, with more than 33,000 from opioids. To put that in perspective, at the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995, the disease claimed 51,000 lives.