Substance Use Prevention & Early Intervention


National Prevention Week BannerThe Office of Behavioral Health, Community Prevention and Early Intervention Programs (OBH-CPEI) is committed to promoting the health and safety of Colorado citizens by working with our community partners to improve access to high quality primary prevention of substance use programs. OBH-CPEI works in partnership with key policymakers, prevention providers, various state level organizations, families, individuals and, most importantly, communities to promote and strengthen the Colorado substance abuse primary prevention infrastructure throughout the state.

Local communities are paramount to the success of prevention programming throughout the state, and it is with the communities where the real work happens. OBH-CPEI funds local communities throughout the state to implement a wide range of community level, empirically based prevention programming aimed at preventing the misuse of legal and illegal substances, while reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors associated with substance misuse and general wellness.

According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual average of 11.5 percent of Colorado adolescents aged 12-17 initiated alcohol use for the first time in the past year from 2011 to 2015. The annual average for initiated marijuana use in the past year was 7.7 percent , and an annual average of 5.2 percent initiated cigarette use in the past year.

Colorado will often rely on the data from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey and the NSDUH to do the following:

  • Determine prevalence of health behaviors among youth
  • Assess youth behavior trends over time
  • Examine the occurrence of youth health behaviors
  • Provide comparable national, state, regional and local youth health data
  • Provide comparable health data among subpopulations of youth

A comprehensive approach to behavioral health also means seeing prevention as part of an overall continuum of care. The Behavioral Health Continuum of Care Model recognizes multiple opportunities for addressing behavioral health problems and disorders. (Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, 2017)