The Family First Prevention Services Act includes historic reform to help keep children and teens safely with their families and avoid the potentially traumatic experience of entering foster care. Family First created Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTP) and mandated that QRTPs have a Trauma-Informed Treatment Care Model. In developing Colorado’s QRTP Trauma-Informed Care Model a workgroup was formed to review national and local models and pertinent research.
CDHS has drafted the following guidelines that must be addressed by each QRTP agency or any agency wishing to become QRTP. The agency must submit their Trauma-Informed Care Model to the CDHS Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) upon application for a QRTP license with the CDHS Office of Children, Youth and Families, and when applying for a mental health designation through OBH.
Download the Colorado Qualified Residential Treatment Program Trauma-Informed Care Model.
The Agency Self-Assessment tool is intended to help agencies that are making the transition to a QRTP and those that have become a QRTP. Developing and maintaining a QRTP Trauma-Informed Model requires the transformation of processes, people and systems throughout the organization. Experience has led to the recommendation that an organization assess, plan, prepare, implement to fidelity, and utilize the technology that will best support its people and efficient workflow and processes for any change selected.