The Summit County commissioners are taking steps to cut ties with Mind Springs Health as community members continue to struggle with accessing care from the mental health provider.

The commissioners held an emotional meeting with Mind Springs representatives and other behavioral health experts Tuesday, March 29. They described a dire situation in which people in crisis aren’t receiving basic support.

“I can’t in good conscience continue to allow what’s happening in Summit County right now to continue,” Commissioner Tamara Pogue said.

The commissioners ultimately broached the possibility of the county cutting ties with the provider all together. Mind Springs is the primary mental health provider for Medicaid users in Summit County. It receives funding from the state government for each county it services, including Summit, Eagle, Garfield, Grand, Jackson, Mesa, Moffat, Pitkin, Rio Blanco and Routt counties.

The commissioners would like to see Summit County’s portion of the funds reinvested back to the county government or another health care provider.

It remains unclear how much money Mind Springs is receiving from the state government. The health provider spent over $2 million of its $30.9 million budget providing services to Summit County clients in 2021, according to Mind Springs budget documents.

Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t the first time the commissioners and other county leaders like Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons have raised concerns about Mind Springs’ effectiveness as a mental health care provider. A Colorado News Collaborative investigation from December reported on how the behavioral health center fails to serve many of its clientele.

Jackie Hartwell’s son, Eric Hartwell, was one of those clients. Jackie Hartwell told her son’s story during the Tuesday meeting, recounting how he started to struggle with his mental health while living in Summit County in 2020.

Eric Hartwell was feeling extreme anxiety at the time because of the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackie Hartwell said. One day in June 2020, Eric Hartwell’s girlfriend at the time called the Sheriff’s Office, worried that he was in a crisis state of mind.

Eric Hartwell was assigned a case manager after meeting with a member of the sheriff’s department’s Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team. He then reached out to Mind Springs to make an appointment.