​Re: Comprehensive community Transition

CO has started -- & there is a lot of work to do

What Have We Got To Build Upon:

HCPF
  • CO Dept of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) Medicaid contractual duties on "Regional Accountable Care Collaboratives" to provide limited services to Jail Inmates upon release.  Generally, mental health -- not brain injury or developmental disability.  Most inmates with mental illness & their families have never heard of it.  This goes to the general problem that there is a whole lot on CO Medicaid paper that is pretty difficult to access. 
  • It is SO FAR BELOW WHAT IS NEEDED [especially when it comes to intensive services & placements]  -- that it is mainly a PR stunt.  Further, inmates need proposed Community Transition Plans prior to adjudication -- to show the prosecutor & the Court --- IT CAN MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE & inmates & their attorneys need to have the opportunity to make adjustments as necessary to address concerns of the prosecutor &/or the Court -- including request to HCPF, others --for "REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS" -- reasonable modifications in policy, practice & procedure under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
  • Providers must have the ability to transfer people to a higher level of care if a lower level of care is inadequate.  What providers are doing in many cases is just calling the police on very minor matters.  Further, some staff may be pretty competent -- but it can be pretty patchy -- some pretty vulnerable & in some cases even elderly people with significant cognitive disabilities are beaten up & hustled off to the jail..  --- Of course, it is pretty hard for providers to transfer people to a higher level of care if that higher level of care is FULL.​​

​See also:
  • Single Entry Points to Long Term Care
  • Aging & Disability Resource Centers
​​CDHS
  • There is NOT enough bed space.  To address bed space concerns NOW -- the State needs to pay hospitals a "reasonable rate" & solve this.  There are health care facilities going up all over the place -- if the State will pay for it -- we'll have plenty of beds.
  • [NEW] CO Community Transition Program -- this needs to be combined with Medicaid efforts in the jails with the modifications mentioned above.
  • [NEW] CO Mental Health Access to Care Ombudsman
  • CO's Brain Injury Program -- Need to include Brain Injury in Community Transition Program 
  • Need to include Developmental Disability in Community Transition Program
​CO Division of Housing
  • Consider Social Impact Bond Funding to address CO Disability Housing Need
  • Colorado Housing Search  is a FANTASTIC TOOL -- we need something like that for placements & intensive services  -- reflecting current openings & criteria.  For State/Federally funded placements & intensive services -- public waitlists need to be maintained & moving @ a "reasonable pace."