The system isn’t working.

That much is clear after a six-month investigation by the Colorado News Collaborative that revealed the state’s mental health safety net is “failing” Coloradans through a lack of meaningful oversight to ensure state-funded mental health centers provide the services communities need.

COLab also found that Mind Springs Health — one of 17 community mental health centers that are together paid more than $437 million a year in tax dollars from the state of Colorado to provide behavioral health services in 10 Western Slope counties, including Pitkin and Garfield — is a particular sore spot. Eagle County got so frustrated that it formed a separate community mental health center altogether to meet the needs Mind Springs isn’t; Summit County, where officials have been vocal critics of Mind Springs, is severing ties with Mind Springs and plans to join Eagle County’s new center instead.