New Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Services Coming to Northern Colorado

SummitStone Awarded Federal Grant to Combat Substance Use and Provide Cutting-Edge Treatment in Larimer County

SummitStone Health Partners has been awarded a $2.9M grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This grant provides Bridge Services funding for Enhanced Medication Assisted Treatment (eMAT), Enhanced Intensive Outpatient (eIOP) treatment, Care Coordination, Outreach, and additional beds at the Crisis Stabilization Unit and Garcia House residential treatment facility for people with mental illness and co-occurring disorders.

In Larimer County, 10% of all adults have a co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder. Of these, nearly 50% will never receive any behavioral health treatment due to cost, access to treatment, or stigma associated with the diagnosis. These numbers have dramatically increased due to the impacts of the COVID pandemic and are disproportionately affecting LatinX and BIPOC communities. The Bridge Services funding will help mitigate the pandemic’s impact and support the expansion of a comprehensive array of evidence-based services for marginalized, underinsured, and underrepresented communities.

Additionally, there is an evaluation component that will allow accurate tracking of program effectiveness across the entire Larimer County substance use disorder (SUD) ecosystem, including within the Larimer County Correctional Facilities MAT Program, the Colorado Opioid Synergy – Larimer and Weld (CO-SLAW) Project and SummitStone.

“It is very exciting to have this funding to help move forward with new and enhanced services for our community. I’m particularly interested in the opportunity to have an evaluation component, where we will be able to demonstrate outcomes and results for the hard work that is done,” said SummitStone CEO Michael Allen.

The grant award began funding new programming in October 2021 and will run through October 2023, by which point the Larimer County Behavioral Health Services Facility is slated to be operational.

SummitStone Health Partners is the not-for-profit behavioral health provider for Northern Colorado and Larimer County. Since 1957, SummitStone’s mission has been to provide unsurpassed mental health and substance use prevention, intervention and treatment services. SummitStone now serves more than 10,000 community members across Larimer County annually, which includes a Behavioral Health Urgent Care and Crisis Stabilization Unit located at 1217 Riverside Ave. in Fort Collins.