Perhaps it’s our taste bud-burning chile…or our smoldering scenic sunsets…or maybe our desert dwelling adobes. Whatever it is that comes to mind when you think of New Mexico, it’s sure to fall under the category of “hot.” What you probably would never put in that category are the many behavioral health care innovations, some garnering national attention, that have sprouted here in this dusty desert landscape; yet, they have produced some of the hottest headlines in recent months.
As manager for Bernalillo County, New Mexico’s most populated county and home to the city of Albuquerque, I can tell you that we’ve struggled through many heart-wrenching tragedies involving individuals living with mental illness.
Twelve years ago, John Hyde, a diagnosed schizophrenic, shot and killed five people, two of them police officers who had shown up to answer a call.
Three short years ago, James Boyd, a homeless man living with mental illness, was shot and killed after a standoff with Albuquerque Police Officers in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains.
A multitude of similar events, some ending peacefully, others tragically have shaken our community to its core and have been witnessed across the country through national media coverage.
If there is a silver lining to be found in these tragedies, it came about when our county commissioners bravely broached the subject of mental health and supportive services – a conversation that was long overdue. I’m proud to say that their efforts have not only championed a movement, but that our community has joined that movement in force.
We’re also fortunate to have the support and partnership of the University of New Mexico Hospital, the only Trauma 1 Level Center in the state, as well as the City of Albuquerque, Mental Health community advocates and organizations, and a lengthy host of undauntedly driven and dedicated service providers.
The inertia behind the movement was contagious, to say the least. It led to the overwhelming passage of a county Behavioral Health Tax, approved by 69% of voters. The result of this Behavioral Health Initiative, you may ask? In a nutshell, we’ve been researching, innovating, and implementing at a level never before seen in our community! And each step we take is thoughtfully guided by local residents who volunteer their time to engage in our four subcommittees and oversight steering committee. About 60 people within our community have or are serving on a committee, many of whom live with a mental illness or have a loved one with a mental health diagnosis. This citizen-driven approach is unprecedented and is changing the way we do business for the better.
Welcome to the new way of doing things! Now, we work in tandem with our counterparts at the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico, sharing best practices and using data from the University of New Mexico’s Institute for Social Research Department to drive programmatic decisions and measure effectiveness. We are moving away from traditional and prescriptive solutions and asking providers, who know and understand our community, to help solve these tough and complicated issues with evidence based interventions. For the first time ever, our municipalities have come together to create Mobile Crisis Teams, a program starting this year that pairs up master’s graduate level counselors with officers responding to 9-1-1 behavioral health calls. It is estimated these teams will receive more than 13,000 calls per year.
To date we have:
• Started programs to prevent adverse childhood experiences (known to increase behavioral health issues in adulthood).
• Provided housing opportunities for individuals transitioning out of jail. We’ll have housed 77 individuals by this coming spring.
• Moved more than 80 people into housing, whom were previously living with a mental illness on the streets, and given them skilled case managers to help them get on their feet.
• Approved transitional housing for youth being released from a detention center (who without this service would otherwise continue to be detained).
• Designed teams that will visit with people and their families in their own homes, to help them cope with the effects of a mental illness or substance abuse disorder.
• Are expanding our resource capacity and workforce through the development of Peer- Driven Support Services.
Funding for all of these programs accounts for about 60% of the annual behavioral health tax dollars.
Additionally, our subcommittees are working on further projects, including one that supports building Resource Re-entry Center that link clients exiting jail with community resources, social services, health care and behavioral health services. Another big project in the pipeline is a Crisis Response Center, which offers voluntary admission for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Unlike a hospital-based psychiatric unit, clients would have more time to stabilize. The idea is that upon discharge, they would be connected to a turn-key approach to services aimed at decreasing the chances of future episodes.
So you see, the desert sands are shifting here in Bernalillo County. We are reforming behavioral health care to create a community where no one falls through the cracks and where programs are available to every person who needs them.