When Governor Jared Polis took office last year, he established a behavioral health task force, and asked them to reform the state’s troubled mental health system.
Robert Werthwein, the state’s director of the Office of Behavioral Health, says the task force was motivated to make big changes -- then COVID-19 struck.
Now, with the state budget in tatters, Werthwein says the short-term focus has shifted from overhauling the system to simply trying to preserve what is already in place.
“Any time we're talking about reducing or not being able to evolve our services, it sets us back and it sets Coloradans back in getting the services they need. It's gonna probably take a little longer for the vision that we have to help all Coloradans. I don't know what that looks like exactly though at this time,” Werthwein said.
He said the task force has proposed using some federal opioid grants to help offset proposed cuts to jail-based mental health programs. The state will need to find other ways to cut costs and fill gaps left by the budget crisis.
“It means that we're going to have to be creative in how we mitigate, and look at the best fiscal options that are available to us, telehealth being one of them, and do our best to mitigate as much as possible the impact of budget cuts and COVID,” Werthwein said.
There may already be a road map on how to cut some costs. Before the coronavirus hit, the state completed a fiscal analysis examining how the state’s mental health budget was being spent. Werthwein said the analysis identified several costly inefficiencies that put obstacles between Coloradans and the mental health care they need.
“I think there are ways for us to be more strategic across the state and work together more collaboratively so we can make a single dollar go further, which is more important now than ever before,” Werthwein said.
The behavioral health director said the people who shared their stories in "Breakdown" made a big impact on the task force and “re-energized” their work.
