Regis welcomes leaders of Colorado’s new Behavioral Health Administration to campus

The Regis Thornton Campus welcomed top leadership from the state’s new Behavioral Health Administration on March 29, becoming the latest stop on a tour intended to advance the conversation about mental health in Colorado.

Leaders of the administration, which launched in July 2022 to oversee and coordinate behavioral health services in Colorado, have been on the road over the past year helping strengthen connections between groups that serve the state’s behavioral health needs. Dr. Morgan Medlock, the first commissioner of the new agency, said the Regis visit provided a chance to expand on discussions about strengthening the state’s behavioral health workforce.

“The BHA’s core value is community-informed practice,” Medlock said. “So, we recognized that, from the beginning, we needed to have an approach to being in community and understanding what the community really valued.”

As part of the tour, Medlock joined Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions leaders, including Academic Dean Linda Osterlund, Ph.D., School of Mental and Behavioral Health Dean Megan Murphy, Ph.D., Loretto Heights School of Nursing Dean Catherine Witt, Ph.D. and Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs Patsy Cullen, Ph.D., to tour the Regis Center for Counseling and Family Therapy and the nursing skills lab. The leaders discussed how Regis should align itself with the agency’s vision to serve children and families.

The Regis School of Mental and Behavioral Health offers a wide range of services at the Thornton Campus, including individual and couples and family and child play therapy. Led by Regis students in the Master’s of Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling programs, sessions are low cost or free to patients.

This year, Regis is expanding its reach: The center was recently approved to accept Medicaid, which opens the opportunities for more patients to seek affordable mental health care.

Medlock said the tour is intended to make space for diversity, inclusion and equity. The goal of the administration, she said, is to step outside traditional mental health policies.

“A lot of our communities have been harmed by traditional systems, and so, we've been we've been asked to do things differently,” Medlock said. “We've been asked to have a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach. In fact, when we think about our mission of co-creating a people-first behavioral health system, co-creation fundamentally means that the people that are impacted by policies are the ones who should be making policy.”

A major step is creating partnerships with organizations that value serving those who need it most.

“We're hoping to really lift up culturally competent, people-centered, trauma-informed values across our continuum,” Medlock said. “And if I understand the mission of Regis correctly, it's really to lean into that value and really support those who are doing the work daily to serve people.” 

Learn more about the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions.