Just two years after nearly doubling in size, the region’s premier mental health provider in 2009 collapsed in stunning fashion, racking up nearly $2 million in unpaid debt, laying off scores of employees and surrendering management of services to the state.
Albemarle Mental Health Center spent most of the year in a self-imposed limbo after its board of directors turned over the agency’s operations to state officials in January. The board took the extreme step in the wake of a scalding state review that declared the agency was essentially broke and found AMHC administration had misled the board.