The executive management team of the Colorado Department of Human Services has spent the last few days visiting counties around the state to, in the words of its own news release, “identify overarching challenges” and “brainstorm ways that the state and local communities can collaborate to improve services to Coloradans.” As part of its summer planning tour, department officials are scheduled to visit a total of nine counties. But Pueblo County isn’t one of them.

That seems more than a little strange since the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, which falls under the department’s oversight, is experiencing what can only be described as a staffing crisis. Before a job fair last week, the mental hospital had about 80 vacancies in 723 so-called “direct care” positions. There are unfilled positions for nurses, psychiatric technicians and client-care aides.

The staffing situation is so dire that employees can be disciplined for insubordination if they refuse to work overtime shifts, some of which can last 16 hours. Hospital administrators even sent out a memo banning employees in understaffed areas from taking lunch breaks – although that decision was quickly reversed in the wake of harsh criticism. And let’s not forget that the hospital almost lost its federal Medicare funding in June because of this shortage.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.