The inaugural chief of Colorado’s new Behavioral Overall health Administration has lasted tiny much more than a year in the position.
Dr. Morgan Medlock, a public wellness professional who had previously been chief healthcare officer for the Washington, D.C., Division of Behavioral Overall health, was in charge of Colorado’s new administration for about 15 months.
Devoid of mentioning Medlock’s name, Gov. Jared Polis’ workplace announced in a news release Monday that the state’s human solutions director would take more than as interim head of the Behavioral Overall health Administration, “effective right away.”
Michelle Barnes, who currently oversees the state’s youngster welfare method and adult protective solutions as head of the Colorado Division of Human Solutions, will take on supervision of the Behavioral Overall health Administration as a nationwide search for a new commissioner requires spot.
Dr. Morgan Medlock became Colorado’s very first behavioral wellness commissioner in January 2022.
“The governor’s commitment to making sure Coloradans have access to mental wellness and substance use disorder solutions remains robust,” Polis’ workplace stated.
When he appointed Medlock to his cabinet, Polis referred to as it aspect of the “transformational change” in the state’s behavioral wellness method.
The governor announced plans to develop a new administration focused on mental wellness in 2020 at the recommendation of a job force that had met for the prior year. The group traveled the state hearing stories of a fragmented method that left folks devoid of access to suicide prevention, substance abuse therapy and other mental wellness care. The group referred to as for a centralized workplace for mental wellness to replace the splintered method that integrated 75 applications spread across 3 state agencies.
Prior to the new administration, the state’s suicide prevention workplace was aspect of the Colorado Division of Public Overall health and Atmosphere, but 24-hour, stroll-in solutions for mental wellness have been overseen by the Colorado Division of Human Solutions. Substance abuse applications have been housed inside the human solutions division, but a lot of have been funded by the state Division of Overall health Care Policy and Financing.
Barnes was chair of that job force. Now, her six-individual senior executive group at the human solutions division will serve as co-interim directors of the division even though Barnes requires more than the Behavioral Overall health Administration, the governor’s workplace stated. Polis’ spokesperson Conor Cahill did not right away respond to a request for additional comment Monday evening.
The Behavioral Overall health Administration was designed as Colorado poured $450 million in federal COVID relief funds into mental wellness solutions. The BHA so far has invested much more than $150 million in solutions, the governor’s workplace stated.
Medlock, a doctor, was selected in January 2022 to lead a new era for mental wellness in Colorado. She spent her very first two months on the job touring the state’s mental wellness hospitals, neighborhood mental wellness clinics and substance abuse therapy centers.
In an interview with The Sun final year, Medlock stated her very first priority was to make positive folks know exactly where to go for therapy, a program that needed aid from libraries, homeless shelters and doctor’s offices. She also had ambitions to develop a method in which folks could acquire mental wellness and substance abuse therapy in the identical clinics.