Culture of Data 2024

"The Behavioral Health Administration (“BHA”) of Colorado is a newly formed cabinet member-led agency operationalized by a legislative mandate in 2022, housed within the Colorado Department of Human Services. The BHA was created with a sweeping mandate to improve care coordination and support providers across the entire spectrum of whole person care. This includes care provided in a wide variety of social and healthcare environments such as: community based mental health centers, substance use treatment, outpatient residential, inpatient, crisis intervention, social and behavioral support, education, and youth and family programs.

This presentation will tell the story of how community-centric design and data were leveraged at BHA to create repeatable design patterns to understand the lived experiences of populations that the BHA serves and translate that understanding into technical systems that support a people-first behavioral health system that meets the needs of all people in Colorado.

The vision of BHA is to facilitate behavioral health services in Colorado that are accessible, meaningful, and trusted, and we see our commitment to modernizing our tech stack as a critical component in our strategic roadmap and how we improve whole person care regardless of identity, need, or personal background. We are excited to continue increasing our efficiency, leveraging our interagency and public/private partnerships, decreasing provider administrative burden, and building upon our mission to co-create a people-first behavioral health system that meets the needs of all people in Colorado.