6 Colo. Code Regs. § 1009-12-4

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 11, June 10, 2024

Section 6 CCR 1009-12-4 - Participating Providers Eligibility Criteria, Preparedness Capabilities Measures, and Award Determination

A. All providers who submit requests for participation in the Program must demonstrate capabilities and capacity, or emerging capabilities and capacity, in the following programmatic elements:

1. Service capacity

a. Be able to provide subject matter expertise for supporting people with mental health conditions in disaster incidents.

b. Have existing relationships with Colorado's behavioral health system and behavioral health services to refer individuals in need of higher-acuity or specific behavioral health services.

c. Designate a Disaster Behavioral Health Response Coordinator (Response Coordinator) and back-up Response Coordinator to maintain the responsibilities and duties of the role.

d. Serve the general public of the service area through disaster preparedness and response programming and coordinate response with other community disaster behavioral health program organizations that serve the same communities.

2. Planning

a. Must be in compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) preparedness standards within their organization.

b. Will maintain relationships (e.g. regular meeting attendance, documented agreements, and plans) with their service area's local and regional emergency preparedness and response (EPR) partners and coalitions, to at least include:

i. Local Public Health Agencies (LPHA);

ii. Healthcare Coalitions (HCCs); and

iii. Colorado Crisis Education and Response Network (CoCERN).

3. Response Team Availability

a. Can maintain organization continuity while fielding a team of 8 or more fully trained Disaster Behavioral Health Responders available for public response in the service area.

i. The provider will provide liability coverage for their team's disaster response activities.

ii. Can provide a licensed behavioral health professional to support the team.

iii. Can maintain team capacity over extended periods of time without a response.

4. Training

a. Ensure Disaster Behavioral Health Responders are trained to CoCERN protocol credentialing standards.

b. Have representation from the organization at 30 hours of training meetings per year.

c. Connect strongly with LPHAs in the service area for Emergency Support Function (ESF) #8 planning, training, exercises, and response coordination.

5. Culturally and linguistically appropriate services

a. Provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services as guided by Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS standards).

b. Maintain community-based relationships that inform, evaluate, and improve culturally and linguistically appropriate practices and capacity.

B. The Department will utilize the following measures in assessing preparedness and capabilities of providers:

1. Number of responders with completed CoCERN Disaster Behavioral Health Responder training requirements.

2. Designation of organization's Disaster Behavioral Health Response Coordinator and back up coordinator.

3. Ongoing participation in:

a. Behavioral Health Disaster Coordinators' meetings;

b. CoCERN meetings; and

c. Regional and local planning, training, exercise events with HCCs and LPHAs.

C. Eligible providers may seek funding from the Department for annual preparedness activities and as-needed response and recovery activities outlined in Section 3 (Activities).

D. The Department will award funding based on need, alignment with the intent of the Program, and a determination of priority.

1. The Cash Fund will not be used in non-disaster programs and will not support other statute or program-mandated duties, such as:

a. Victim Advocate Activities;

b. Mental health or substance abuse treatment;

c. Required school-based services;

d. CMS preparedness requirements or continuity of operations planning;

e. Treatment for mental illness/substance abuse crisis interventions; or

f. Mental health first aid training.

2. The Program will prioritize and fund program activities that are not supported by other conditional disaster behavioral health programs and funding (e.g. Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program available under federal disaster declarations, activities funded by the Colorado Healing Fund).

E. The Department may prioritize awards in a way that promotes the geographic and socio-economic diversity of providers.

F. All requests for funding, and award decisions made by the Department, are publicly accessible and may be utilized in reporting the outcomes of the Program and allocated funds.

G. The Department may request specific data elements be collected by an awarded provider in accordance with the intent of the Program as necessary for reporting on the outcomes of utilized funding.

6 CCR 1009-12-4

45 CR 14, July 25, 2022, effective 8/14/2022