State officials blasted one of Colorado’s 17 community mental health centers for prescription practices they called “scary” and “appalling” as they released a rare, three-agency audit Thursday. 

The audit of Mind Springs Health, the safety-net mental health center for 10 counties on the Western Slope, followed dozens of complaints about the quality of care from patients and local officials. 

The 22-page report was the culmination of a review launched in January by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the state Department of Human Services and the state Department of Public Health and Environment. 

Besides the dangerous prescription issues, the audit said Mind Springs is failing to meet the community need for mental health services. Mind Springs leadership, the audit said, “was not able to articulate or share documented metrics on community access to service gaps, nor produce plans to address those access gaps.”  

Also, the Mind Springs board structure is “complex, lacks transparency” and “limits community engagement,” auditors wrote. Some board members, they wrote, “may have conflicts of interest.”