Community health

Programs and services designed to help communities on their path to health.

UCHealth demonstrates community health leadership by providing and participating in a broad range of community health initiatives and programs, across the Colorado Front Range and beyond.

Community Programs throughout Colorado

Bright by Text. This nationwide text messaging service helps parents and caregivers of children prenatal to age eight make the most of everyday interactions through free tips, information, games and resources.

Family Education. From prenatal hospital tours to childbirth, breastfeeding/chestfeeding and baby care classes, our nationally-certified instructors help build confidence and knowledge through education and hands-on training.

findhelp. This social care/social services directory is free to use and contains many resources.

Healthy Hearts and Minds. Programs designed to empower school-aged students, adults and families with education, motivation and inspiration to prevent heart disease and cultivate lifelong habits of physical health and emotional wellness. Program features include:

Health management programs (chronic disease self-management) offer evidence-based programs that provide participants with the skills necessary to set realistic goals and solve problems related to ongoing health issues.

Project SEARCH is a school-to-work transition program for young adults with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities. The students participating in Project SEARCH are fully immersed at the UCHealth hospital in their area to learn job skills with the goal of securing competitive employment.

Stepping On is a a seven-week workshop designed to improve balance and reduce fall risk for those 60 years or older who live at home, do not have dementia but do have a fear of or history of falling.

Northern colorado
metro denver
southern colorado

In northern Colorado

Community health educators in northern Colorado have been keeping our region healthy for more than 30 years.

All programs are client- and community-centered and meet community needs through evidence-based best practices for health education, promotion, and protection, preventive services, chronic disease self-management, safety, and injury prevention.

Care Management Programs

Postpartum Nurse Home Visit program

Provides community health nurse visits to newborns and families covered by Medicaid in their home environment or in one of CHI’s office or clinic sites.

  • Infants are assessed for weight loss/gain, jaundice, feeding difficulties and how they are adjusting to a new environment.
  • Community Health nurses also assess parents for normal post-partum recovery, look for signs of complications, discuss family planning and help with transitions in returning to work or school.
  • Referrals to appropriate community resources are made as needed.
  • Lactation support is a significant part the program though nurses also see families who choose formula feeding.
  • Most families will have a one-time home visit, but if there are ongoing needs, the families may be seen multiple times or referred to other programs.
Healthy Harbors Program

Supportive services to pediatric patients and families who have complex medical and/or behavioral health care needs or barriers to accessing care and resources, who also have Larimer County Department of Human Services involvement or history.

Our team strives to improve children’s health outcomes while ensuring their comprehensive healthcare needs are met. Healthy Harbors:

  • Attends primary care and specialty care medical appointments.
  • Collects medical records and assimilates a health history for an initial primary care visit.
  • Creates ‘health passports’ which can follow a child through out-of-home placements.
  • Coordinates external referrals and connect families with relevant community resources.
  • Acts as a liaison between medical providers, behavioral health providers and the Department of Human Services (DHS)/CPS caseworkers.

General referral criteria for the Healthy Harbors program are:

  • Complex care needs or multiple providers involved in care (often includes DHS involvement).
  • Barriers to accessing care and services.
  • Youth and family could benefit from additional community-based support.
Medicaid Accountable Care Collaborative (MACC) program

Provides intensive, community-based care management and supportive services to Medicaid patients who have complex medical and/or behavioral health care needs, or barriers to accessing care and resources. The Fort Collins-based MACC team is an inter-disciplinary team comprised of clinical behavioral health specialists, nurses, case managers, care coordinators, and administrative support and outreach staff.

MACC staff work closely with primary care providers to optimize a patient’s healthcare management in an outpatient or community setting.

All clients must be active with Colorado Medicaid coverage. Additional criteria to consider for referring to the MACC program are:

  • Poorly controlled chronic conditions or multiple co-morbidities.
  • High recidivism to the Emergency Department or hospital, or substantial risk for hospitalization in the coming year.
  • Barriers to accessing appropriate healthcare and/or behavioral health care.
  • Mental health or substance abuse issue concurrent with a chronic medical condition.
  • Complex clinical history with additional psycho-social, financial or functional challenges.

Referrals
If you are a professional interested in referring a patient to care management or have questions about our programs, please call 970.495.7400 or email [email protected] or [email protected].

Community Health Resources

Contributions to the community

To gain understanding around some of the metrics for our key community contributions, our 2022-2024 CHI Programs Update is now available. This data is from 2021-22 and was impacted by COVID-19. We continue to see programmatic growth and program impact across northern Colorado.

In Metro Denver

In southern Colorado