The Denver Post is once again documenting the “growing pains” of Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration, the sprawling agency created under Governor Jared Polis to centralize and reform the state’s mental and behavioral health system. In this latest piece, reporter Seth Klamann details the findings of a 2024 employee engagement review that paints a picture of low morale, leadership distrust, and internal dysfunction inside the BHA.
The article walks through survey results showing employees reporting confusion about direction, frustration with communication, and concern about leadership stability. This is all unfolding inside an agency that was pitched as a bold, coordinated solution to a worsening mental health crisis in Colorado.
It is, unfortunately, a familiar story: big promises, new bureaucracy, blended and braided funding streams, and now, predictable turbulence.
The Bullet Point Brief
- A 2024 employee engagement review found low morale within the Behavioral Health Administration, including concerns about leadership and direction. Not exactly the foundation you want for a “transformational” agency.
- Staff reported confusion about roles and responsibilities and frustration with communication from leadership. Translation: lots of meetings, not enough clarity.
- The BHA was created to consolidate and streamline behavioral health services across Colorado. Instead, it is still trying to figure out its own org chart.
- The agency has already experienced leadership turnover since its creation, which adds to the instability and employee skepticism documented in the review.
- All of this is happening while Colorado continues to face a significant mental and behavioral health crisis. The need is urgent. The bureaucracy is… unsettled.
My Bottom Line
Let me be crystal clear. I am passionate about mental health care. This nation has a mental and behavioral health crisis, and Colorado is not immune. Insurance companies need to treat mental and behavioral health as core components of whole-person wellness. Private sector providers, hospital networks, and insurers need to make access to counseling, therapy, and psychiatric care just as common and just as available as a visit to your primary care doctor.
But creating more government is not the same thing as creating more care.
I fought the creation of the Behavioral Health Administration for this exact reason. “Blended and braided” funding sources sound great in a press conference. In practice, it means you have layered state dollars, federal dollars, grants, and oversight into a brand-new bureaucracy and hoped that somehow it would magically coordinate itself. I lost that fight. The governor got his new agency.
And now here we are. Low morale. Leadership churn. Confusion about mission and structure. Taxpayer dollars flowing into an organization still trying to find its footing while families across Colorado are desperate for real services.
This article is a blueprint for what happens when bigger government is sold as the solution to a deeply human crisis. More bureaucracy. More internal chaos. More reports. Meanwhile, the mental health crisis does not pause so the org chart can settle down.
Bravo, Governor. More government. More waste. And the people who actually need help are still waiting.
Source: The Denver Post
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