Mental Health Partners, Clinica Family Health to merge

LAFAYETTE — Mental Health Partners and its community health partner Clinica Health, will merge into one organization.

According to a joint news release by the boards of both organizations, the merger is likely to be completed in September.

“More than anything else, this merger is about our patients and clients,” Clinica CEO Simon Smith said in a prepared statement. “When someone is seeking health and healing, they don’t want to navigate a difficult landscape of referrals, hunt for new providers and explain their medical history over and over from the beginning. They want seamlessly coordinated care from providers they’ve built lifelong relationships with and better access to specialists when they need them.”

The merged organization will be called Clinica Family Health & Wellness, and will provide physical, behavioral and oral health services from locations across Boulder, Broomfield, Gilpin and Adams counties. Smith will be president and CEO of the merged company, while Jen Leosz and Dixie Casford, currently co-CEOs of MHP, will become chief integrated health officer and chief administrative officer, respectively.

“Mental Health Partners and Clinica Family Health have built a strong partnership that goes back over three decades,” Leosz and Casford said in a joint prepared statement. “We are both mission-driven and people-centered; we share a strong commitment to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion; and we passionately believe everyone deserves access to high-quality, affordable health care. Yet we recognize that the health-care environment is rapidly changing and access to care in a fragmented system is a significant challenge. With this merger, we have a powerful opportunity to remove barriers in the health-care system, bring together more resources to meet the unique needs of our patients and clients, and practice a truly whole-person health-care model.

“A whole-person model gives health-care providers better awareness of the full picture of an individual’s physical, mental and social needs, bringing the right care to patients in a more comprehensive, prevention-focused and person-centered way,” the statement continued. “We’re building spaces where primary-care providers can work right alongside mental health-care and oral health-care providers. By setting up an environment for strong communication among a team of providers, we can accomplish shared goals for improved health much more effectively. In our history of doing this work together, MHP and Clinica have already seen measurable, positive results reported directly by our patients and clients.”

Clinica Health’s locations include clinics in Boulder, Lafayette, Longmont, Nederland and Westminster. Mental Health Partners’ locations include offices in Boulder, Broomfield, Lafayette and Longmont. 

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