Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)

You said Broomfield needs to focus on mental health and substance misuse. We listened. Now the Community Health Improvement Plan will shape the future of mental health in the city and county over the next five years.

It's time to change the story we tell ourselves and each other about mental health, mental illness, and drug abuse. That story has created stigma, discrimination, reluctance to ask for help when we need it, and failure to understand the conditions that help or hinder the mental health and well-being of individuals, families and Broomfield's communities.

Your feedback is needed - help inform Broomfield's five-year plan to improve mental health by taking a quick one-question survey and enter to WIN a FREE $150 gift card to King Soopers.

The aim of the 2020-2024 Community Health Improvement Plan is:
All Broomfielders have the opportunity to attain and maintain a state of mental well-being that allows them to realize their potential, cope with life's stresses, and thrive in our community.

Health and Human Services staff have identified 5 goals that could move us in the right direction. Each builds on existing work and momentum (e.g. the strategies identified by Communities That Care/CTC coalition members, or strategies identified by healthcare partners and neighboring counties), while also creating space for new strategies to address gaps. We'd like to know what's most important to you from this list:

• Change the narrative: boost individual and collective understanding of mental health as a positive state of well-being that the Broomfield community builds and maintains together. We see a need to get more people thinking and talking about mental health and substance misuse in new ways. Transforming the way we understand individual and community mental health, along with increasing our skills to navigate health insurance and mental health services, can help us change the conditions that influence mental health, and be better at supporting each other.
• Reduce Broomfielders' barriers to mental health and substance misuse services. We know that cost, availability of providers, language, stigma, and other barriers prevent people from getting the care they need when they need it. Focusing together on these barriers could unlock innovative local solutions, and effective advocacy with partners across the metro region could result in real changes to access.
• Prevent drug and alcohol misuse and reduce their health impacts. Broomfield has already identified key strategies to prevent youth substance use, including smoking and vaping, and we want to carry this momentum forward. We also see a need to expand our work to address the opioid epidemic, and to focus on reducing the health impact of drug and alcohol misuse.
• Strengthen clinical and community connections for maternal and early childhood mental health. Across the Broomfield community, the Metro Denver region, and the state of Colorado, there are growing opportunities to work together to make sure that pregnant women, and families with young children, get the support they need to have good mental health and to thrive.
• Increase community connectedness, and decrease social isolation and exclusion. A sense of belonging and connectedness to community is an important part of well-being. Social isolation and exclusion create toxic stress and disconnection, and harm people's health. We see an opportunity to work together to make sure our various communities are feeling seen, heard and valued in the wider community that is Broomfield.
  

The first survey question closed on Monday, Sept. 23 but the conversation is just beginning. Thanks for joining in and please look for more opportunities to give your input on the issue coming soon!