In one of the neatly maintained, brick buildings lining a street on the campus of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan in southwest Denver is a hive of offices where about 60 state employees focus on the prevention and treatment of mental health problems, including substance abuse and addiction.

Their work in the Office of Behavioral Health is cut out for them in Colorado, home to some of the highest drug-use rates in the nation and one of the country’s worst track records for public funding of mental health care, especially for youths. The state almost entirely bankrolls the office’s efforts to prevent substance abuse and addiction with an $8.3 million federal grant.