The recent news that Mind Springs Health will be closing its Withdrawal Management Facility (detox center) in Glenwood Springs on March 10 came as a surprise to the nine entities that contributed funding toward the project. The detox center had just opened its doors in June of last year.
The recent news coincided with the announced closure of another Mind Springs facility in Grand Junction: West Springs Psychiatric Hospital, which operated for 20 years and was the sole inpatient psychiatric hospital on the Western Slope. It will also close on March 10.
An Agreement to Fund Withdrawal Management Services in Garfield County, which took effect in November 2022, detailed the initial funding committed by the nine partners: Town of Carbondale ($10,000), City of Glenwood Springs (up to $100,000), Town of New Castle ($10,000), Town of Silt ($2,000), City of Rifle ($40,000), Town of Parachute ($2,000), Valley View Hospital ($100,000), Grand River Hospital District ($12,500) and Garfield County (up to $100,000).
In a Sopris Sun interview with Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovksy, he stated that the county funding, which included a 2024 supplemental grant of another $100,000, is a complete loss. The total $200,000 came by way of national opioid settlement funds.
The county also allocated $49,500 in May 2024 for the care of county residents at the West Springs Hospital, which had seen 40 county residents through April that year.
Reasons for closure
A key reason for the closure, according to Mind Springs, is renewed federal regulations.
“There are upcoming regulatory changes in Colorado based on federal updates to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria, which states are usually required to adopt,” Mind Springs wrote in a statement to The Sun. “These would prohibit standalone withdrawal management programs in the state.”
When Mind Springs first became aware of the regulations, slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2026, it wasn’t clear to them that 3.7 licensed facilities would be affected. The Glenwood location is licensed for 3.7 and 3.2 levels of care. Those level 3 ratings are based on the Residential Services Continuum. Facilities operated under 3.1 or 3.5, for instance, require only clinical management, whereas a 3.7 facility is medically managed. Mind Springs said it only recently learned that the facility would be impacted because it is still considered a “standalone” program.
“The program in Glenwood Springs would need to start implementing changes well before [Jan. 1],” the statement continued, “and these changes would require more upfront investment into the program as well.”
Jankovsky acknowledged that the changes would be onerous and costly, but was disappointed no one caught it sooner. “How did we go through three years of planning on this and nobody realized there were going to be federal rules and regulations coming down that would make it obsolete a year after it was opened? That was really disturbing,” he stated.
Mind Springs also cited existing financial concerns for the closure, noting that the detox program was approximately $55,000 short each month. Mind Springs did not elaborate on the root of those financial shortfalls.
Mind Springs entered into a management agreement with Florida-based Larkin Health Systems late last year, initially thought to potentially bolster its operations. But the partnership was dissolved just recently. Mind Springs said the relationship, and it’s ending, did not factor into the decision to close the Glenwood Springs detox. However, in a Feb. 24 press release detailing the West Springs Hospital closure, Mind Springs stated: “With West Springs Hospital closing both Larkin Health Systems and Mind Springs, Inc. mutually agreed to part ways and not renew the organization’s management agreement.”
Mind Springs has owned the Glenwood Springs building (2802 South Grand Avenue) since 2019. The organization will continue to operate an outpatient program through the front of the building — the detox was housed in the rear — and is exploring ways to repurpose the detox space for other behavioral health or addiction therapy purposes.
Needs still exist
Back in 2010, before she was a Carbondale trustee and while working as a medical provider, Lani Kitching was part of a collaborative identifying healthcare resources between Battlement Mesa and Aspen.
“It was identified very clearly that from a mental health and behavioral health perspective, we have outstanding professional talent on the diagnostic level with our social workers and other therapists,” she told The Sun, “but we were woefully lacking resources for rehabilitative services and follow up.”
Commissioner Jankovksy added that prior to committing county dollars, the various municipal and healthcare partners had completed census data which indicated “at some point we’d have an average of four people … per night, roughly,” he recalled. “And we never got to that. I think the best we did was in December when we had like 1.7.” The Sopris Sun requested the average from Mind Springs, but did not receive a response by press time.
“I’m disappointed for the community that is still, now, unserved,” stated Kitching.
As stated in Jeanne Souldern’s Aug. 24, 2023 Sopris Sun article, “The region [had] gone over a decade without such a center, with the last one being operated by Colorado West within the Garfield County Jail, which closed its doors in 2012.”
“We understand the profound impact this closure will have on our patients, staff and the community,” Mind Springs concluded its statement. “Our commitment to providing high-quality mental health services remains steadfast, and we are dedicated to finding innovative solutions to meet the community’s needs.”