Health District of Northern Larimer County Board Meeting 1/23/24

For more information (including members in attendance) see the full notes document here.*

View the meeting agenda and packet.

A video recording of the meeting is available here.

Agency Mission: The Health District of Northern Larimer County is a public agency that has been meeting local healthcare needs since 1960. Today we provide residents of northern Larimer County with dental, behavioral, and preventive health services, in addition to connecting people to more affordable health insurance and prescription options.

Insurance enrollment events took place across Larimer County. The district’s teen self-care fair was well attended. The social media outreach for the Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Connections (CAYAC) team has increased. The district’s Community Impact Team offers Opioid Overdose response training – the “Changing Minds” program. A new ticketing system and “living Calendar” helps people see what is scheduled so they may add relevant events.

2023 Youth Behavioral Health Assessment: The 2018 1a Ballot measure helps fund Behavioral Health Services and built the new Longview Mental Health facility in Fort Collins by directing sales and use tax of 0.25% to behavioral health needs in Larimer County. Reassessment occurs every 5 years. A youth component was missed in 2018 and was added in 2023. The current master Plan includes a youth behavioral health component. Aurora Research Institute (ARI) was contracted to do a survey of youth mental and emotional well-being. The data was taken from 47 different organizations as well as schools. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), rural youth, and LGBQ+ youth were included. A key finding is that the stigma of mental health is an issue but is decreasing. However, the stigma of substance abuse is worsening. Messaging around substance use wording is stigmatizing. More support is needed for caregivers and peers. Spanish language materials and Spanish-speaking helpers are needed. These recommendations were made:

1. Attract and retain culturally diverse and competent providers.
2. Support and expand peer and family support.
3. Increase Acute Care Services for Youth. The Community Master Plan 2.0 is recommending a feasibility study for a youth acute care facility.
4. Increase accessibility of care.
5. Expand Wrap-around services like basic needs such as housing, food, and transportation.
6. Increase awareness and education of behavioral health resources available in the community.
7. Expand and increase the capacity of services for younger youth (ages 0-4 and 5-12) and families. Expand early child experiences, development, screening and early intervention.
8. Increase resources supporting a comprehensive school behavioral health system.
9. Increase and adopt successful models for home-based behavioral healthcare services.

Changing Minds Larimer County and Mental Health and Substance Use Alliance of Larimer County are a collective of 35 local agencies, organizations and community members representing many sectors of Northern Larimer County coming together to decrease the stigma and increase the knowledge about substance use disorders. 1 in 10 of our neighbors live with the disease of addiction. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a disease that affects the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain and is the substance that rewards us. It is “the feel-good chemical”. In an average day we have a dopamine level of about 50gm/dl. On our “best day ever” our levels are around 100 gm/dl and on a “worst day” our level is about 40 gm/dl. Use of methamphetamine causes a dopamine level of about 1,100 gm/dl.

This high dopamine level “rewires” our brain and makes things like seeking shelter, eating food, drinking water, and making human connections not as important. Dopamine causes the brain to establish a new normal. In SUD our brain starts prioritizing the use of the drug. Then, no matter how much of the drug we use, our brain starts to decrease the natural dopamine production until we find ourselves needing more of the drug just to get to a level of 30gm/dl. This is barely enough dopamine to get out of bed and function. An addicted brain experiences off-the-charts cravings that have been measured on MRI scans. It can take 2 years of not using to decrease these cravings. Changing Minds Larimer offers this short video to help people understand the effect of substance use disorder on the brain.

The collective recommends using the term“Substance Use Disorder” over“addiction” in messaging.

UC Health in Northern Colorado bought 2 new Da Vinci surgical robots. They make surgery minimally invasive and spare healthy tissue for better outcomes.

The Health District is watching 3 bills for the 2024 session:

1. SB 24-010: Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact. This bill adopts the dentist and dental hygienist compact to facilitate the interstate practice of dentistry and dental hygiene. If practitioners hold a license in one state, they can apply to hold a license in another of the 7 participating states.
2. SB 24-033: Lodging Property Tax treatment on short term rentals classified as lodging. The assessment rate for stays less than 90 days would be 27.9% vs. the residential rate of 6.77%. This could affect tax revenue.

HB 24-1045: Treatment for Substance Use Disorders offers access to medications for opioid use disorder. It also convenes a working group to study and identify barriers to opening and operating supervised opioid treatment facilities.

*Citizen Observers further the commitment of the League of Women Voters to its principle of Citizens Right to Know, however, we are not acting as journalists. Omissions and errors are possible. It is assumed that users of this information are responsible for their own fact-checking. This could include contacting a government clerk, conversing with an elected official or staff, and/or asking us to speak to the Observer who attended.