Johnstown behavioral-health center to close; 158 to lose jobs

JOHNSTOWN — A 92-bed behavioral-health center with a troubled past plans to close March 31, laying off all 158 workers.

Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health, 4770 Larimer Parkway, announced the closure in a Jan. 30 letter to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. That state law requires 60 days’ advance notice of a closure or layoffs by employers with 100 or more full-time workers.

Sabrina Gibson, the center’s CEO, wrote to CDPHE that “all employees have been notified of their separation from employment and that the separation will be permanent.”

She wrote that some workers would be “separated from employment” before March 31 “as the facility begins to wind down operations” while others might be asked to work beyond that date to help with finalizing the closure.

Gibson’s letter indicated that the layoffs would include more than 50 behavioral-health associates, nearly 30 registered nurses and seven therapists.

Previously known as Clear View Behavioral Health and run under a different owner-operator, the center closed in September 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, after four years of regulators’ site visits that produced 85 CDPHE citations, some of which were related to inadequate COVID protections, as well as at least two lawsuits. Franklin, Tennessee-based Summit Behavioral Healthcare LLC bought the property for $29.25 million in December 2020, and it opened as Johnstown Behavioral Health in July 2021.

An investigation by KMGH-TV Channel 7 that was aired and published on Christmas Day 2023 cited reports of continued problems at the facility.

According to its website, the facility has been offering “mental-health crisis intervention, inpatient treatment, medication management and intensive therapy for mental-health issues” as well as treating substance-use disorder “through a full continuum of care, including medically managed detox and intensive inpatient services.”

• *This story has been changed to correct the name of the center to Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health.

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