​Core Public Health Services (CPHS) Needs Assessment

Colorado’s local public health agencies need sufficient funding, staffing, and capacity to consistently deliver core public health services in every community. To better understand these needs, CALPHO and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment commissioned a comprehensive statewide assessment examining current implementation and spending and estimating the resources required to fully deliver these services. Although this assessment reflects conditions at the time it was conducted in 2019, it remains an important resource for understanding the longstanding capacity and funding gaps affecting Colorado’s governmental public health system. While specific figures may have changed, the report’s key findings and identified needs remain relevant—and many of the challenges have likely intensified.

Download the overall report.
Download the executive summary. 

Some Key Findings

• The state of Colorado was approximately 61% implemented across the 12 CPHS.
• The service Access to and Linkage with Health Care and the capability Health Equity & Social Determinants of Health were the least implemented statewide.
• The capability Assessment & Planning (which includes data capacities) and the service Communicable Disease Prevention, Education & Control were the most implemented statewide.
• Colorado spent about $278 million on CPHS in 2018 (mostly through federal funding sources), and the assessment estimates that we would need to spend or allocate $188 million more to support full CPHS implementation.
• Underfunding is only part of the story.  The way public health is funded - through disease-specific federal programs with short-term cycles - undermines agencies' ability to be responsive to community-determined needs or urgent threats.