4 tasks for Behavioral Health Administration

Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration was created by Gov. Polis two years ago and announced with great optimism. The idea was to create an organization that could coordinate the various mental health programs run by our state agencies. The hope was to get these disparate programs working together to drastically improve Colorado’s mental health landscape. 

That landscape is now more desperate than ever. More Coloradans with untreated mental illness are suffering in our jails and on our streets. Children’s Hospital declared a “state of emergency” in youth mental health two years ago, but record numbers of young people continue to need emergency room care for mental health needs and self-harm. Homelessness linked to intractable addictions is growing and…