Since launching in 2022, IMPACT BH has grown alongside the rural Colorado communities at the heart of the initiative. What began as a responsive effort to strengthen perinatal behavioral health care has evolved into a comprehensive model that combines grant funding, clinical and quality improvement support, data technical assistance, and peer learning.

This evolution reflects both the continued need for access to perinatal mental health, substance use, intimate partner violence, and social supports—and the tremendous strengths of rural communities themselves. Rural communities are creative, resilient, and committed to supporting one another. IMPACT BH is designed to build on those strengths, bringing resources and training alongside local knowledge and relationships to help strengthen their local perinatal behavioral health systems. 

Led by the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC) in partnership with the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration, IMPACT BH has supported eight rural Colorado counties since its launch. We’re proud of what communities have accomplished together and are excited to welcome 12 additional counties across five communities to the 2026–2027 cohort.Each community is anchored by two lead partners: an outpatient clinic and a community-based organization. These lead partners participate directly in the IMPACT BH learning collaborative, receive clinical and quality improvement coaching, and collect and submit data on screening and referral improvements for perinatal behavioral health. 

But the work of IMPACT BH extends well beyond these lead organizations. Each lead partner is surrounded by a broader network of local partners—including local family resource centers, midwifery practices, behavioral health providers, peer support services, community-based organizations, public health departments, people with lived experience, and more—who come together through a  local Perinatal Continuum of Care (PCOC) working group. 

Our 2026–2027 communities and lead partners include:

• Chaffee County: Chaffee County Public Health and Salida Health Center
• Custer County: Custer County Kids Council, Custer County Public Health, and Custer County Health Center
• Grand & Jackson Counties: Grand Beginnings and Middle Park Health
• San Miguel & Ouray Counties: Bright Futures for Early Childhood and Families and Telluride Regional Medical Center
• San Luis Valley: San Luis Valley Area Health Education Center, San Luis Valley Behavioral Health Group, and San Luis Valley Health

New Implementation Partners Bring Additional Expertise

As IMPACT BH enters its next phase, CPCQC is excited to welcome two new core implementation partners to the program: 

James Bell Associates (JBA) is a nationally recognized research and evaluation firm with decades of experience strengthening health and human services programs. JBA brings expertise in designing and implementing learning collaboratives, building quality improvement capacity, and strengthening behavioral and maternal-child health systems. Its team of quality improvement advisors partners with clinics and community-based organizations to identify and test tailored solutions that work within each site’s unique, local context. Through IMPACT BH, JBA provides continuous quality improvement (CQI) coaching and data technical assistance; facilitating collaborative learning sessions, supporting data collection and use, and helping each partnership implement and sustain meaningful change. 

The CU Section for Perinatal, Reproductive, and Early Childhood Mental Health (CU PRE) serves as IMPACT BH’s lead clinical training and technical assistance partner. CU PRE brings specialized expertise in perinatal behavioral health, including screening and brief intervention, referral to treatment, intimate partner violence (IPV), suicidal ideation, and health-related social needs. CU PRE works with IMPACT BH communities to deliver practical clinical training and technical assistance grounded in evidence-based practices and the realities of rural care.

A New IMPACT BH Model—Built with Rural Communities

Over the past year, CPCQC partnered with CU PRE and JBA to listen, learn, and shift IMPACT BH’s approach to supporting rural perinatal behavioral health systems. 

We engaged current, former, and prospective IMPACT BH partners—including rural providers, community-based organizations, public health departments, peer support providers, and people with lived perinatal experience—alongside statewide partners. Their insights helped shape an updated IMPACT BH model designed with and for rural communities. 

The updated model brings together three complementary components:

1. Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative: The new IMPACT BH learning collaborative combines clinical education, quality improvement, peer learning, and coaching to help communities improve perinatal behavioral health identification and response. The learning collaborative is designed to complement statewide implementation of AIM patient safety bundles by strengthening the outpatient and community-based systems of care surrounding hospitals.
2. Implementation Grants: IMPACT BH provides direct funding to help communities strengthen and sustain local perinatal navigation services, as well as participate in the learning collaborative. 
3. Perinatal Continuum of Care Working Groups: IMPACT BH communities will continue to launch local Perinatal Continuum of Care Work Groups (PCOCs). PCOC partners will have access to IMPACT BH clinical training and quality improvement support, extending the reach of the learning collaborative and helping ensure shared knowledge of best practices across local systems of care. 

What’s Coming Next

We All Have a Role Training

Over the past year, CPCQC and CU PRE connected with IMPACT BH partners to identify paths to improving perinatal behavioral health identification and response across a variety of rural clinical and community partners. Partners emphasized the desire to dive deeper into clinical best practices, develop improved screening workflows, and improve local connections to statewide resources. 

In response, CPCQC, PRE, and IMPACT partners developed a forthcoming asynchronous training entitled “We All Have a Role: Recognize, Respond, and Connect in Perinatal Behavioral Health.” The training will provide practical skills for recognizing behavioral health concerns, responding with confidence, and connecting people to support. Available in English and Spanish, it will launch initially with current and former IMPACT BH communities.

A New Sustainability Model

CPCQC is partnering with former IMPACT BH communities to develop and eventually pilot a sustainability model that will extend access to clinical coaching, statewide connections, and peer learning beyond the core 12-month IMPACT BH program. This work will also strengthen a statewide network of former IMPACT BH communities, creating new opportunities to learn from and support one another.

Looking Ahead to 2027

Recruitment for the next IMPACT BH cohort is expected to begin in early 2027. Stay tuned for more information or reach out to info@cpcqc.org to learn more.

CPCQC IMPACT BH team members, Lauren Smith and Kylie Hibshman, at the FY27 cohort kickoff