Contact: Tyler Jones, Manager of Communications

Email: Tjones@cpcqc.org

Downloadable Version: Download the Official Press Release (PDF)

COLORADO PERINATAL CARE QUALITY COLLABORATIVE (CPCQC) RECEIVES STATE-WIDE RESILIENT COLORADO GRANT TO EXPAND “TURNING THE TIDE” PERINATAL SUBSTANCE USE INITIATIVE

COLORADO — July 2026 — The Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC) is pleased to announce its selection as a recipient of the state’s prestigious Resilient Colorado Grant. Sourced from the state’s landmark opioid settlement funds, this $175,000, three-year award will directly support the expansion of CPCQC’s Turning the Tide initiative—a program designed to equip healthcare providers with the tools necessary to improve outcomes among pregnant and postpartum individuals struggling with substance use disorders.

The Resilient Colorado Grant program, overseen by the Colorado Department of Law, reinvests opioid settlement dollars into community-led solutions that address the ongoing opioid epidemic. CPCQC was selected to receive funding to bolster its critical, life-saving perinatal prevention and intervention efforts.

“I think many people in the state, even people who work with pregnant and postpartum people, might be surprised to know that suicide and overdose are the leading causes of maternal death in our state. This funding allows us to expand our outreach and meet providers and clinics exactly where they are to save lives.”

— Amber Johnson, DNP, CNM, FACNM, CPHQ, CPCQC’s Director of Quality Improvement

According to Johnson, the three-year award will accomplish three major goals:

1. Expand provider training on perinatal substance use stigma and bias from the hospital setting to the clinic setting. Community Hospital, Montrose Regional Health, and Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital have already successfully hosted the training in their facilities.
2. Establish a supplemental training focused on motivational interviewing and assessing an individual’s readiness to receive recovery services, to be launched by year three.
3. Train hospital obstetric units in-person on overdose readiness, ensuring providers recognize signs of overdose, know how to respond, and have access to the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone.

CPCQC is proud to collaborate with MOMs+ (Epifluence) as a key partner in this work, combining clinical expertise to ensure healthcare teams across Colorado are fully supported in delivering this crucial training.

With accidental overdose remaining a leading cause of pregnancy-associated deaths in Colorado, the Turning the Tide initiative remains a critical, life-saving mechanism.

The full coverage of this story can be found in the article by Jace DiCola published in The Daily Sentinel. To learn more about the Turning the Tide initiative or CPCQC’s work, please visit cpcqc.org/initiative/turning-the-tide/.

About CPCQC

The Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC) is a statewide nonprofit dedicated to advancing health equity and improving health outcomes for pregnant and postpartum people and their infants across Colorado.

CPCQC Receives Resilient Colorado Grant to Expand “Turning the Tide” Perinatal Initiative