Throughout Colorado, judges have ordered individuals awaiting trial to be evaluated for their competency to participate in their own defense. Often times these individuals are found to be Incompetent to Proceed, meaning they must be restored to mental competency before they can stand trial for their alleged crimes. In 2010, Colorado ranked 48th in the nation in total public and private psychiatric beds.

Colorado currently has crisis response services, but not a comprehensives system in all communities statewide.

The Department of Human Services is changing the way staff engages with clients and patients. This new way of serving Coloradans is known as Trauma-informed Care. Essentially, previous approaches tried to answer the question "What is wrong with you?" whereas Trauma-informed Care compassionately asks "What happened to you in the past?"

Colorado Department of Human Services, Domestic Violence Program (DVP) was contacted by several crisis centers who expressed confusion regarding State Rule 12 CCR 2512-2 (DVP), and 12.201.2.C.6, which instructs advocates to notify victims that reporting "danger to self or others" in addition to mandatory child abuse reporting, is an exception to confidentiality. The purpose of this Guide is to clearly communicate the DVP rule related to danger to...

State agencies work to improve the health and well being of Colorado's children and youth by coordinating programs at the state level to ensure that those programs are responsive to the needs of communities in order to more effectively serve this population.