A brand-new facility that will treat mental health emergencies will begin taking patients on Tuesday June 18, and some of the state’s top officials celebrated the center in a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday.
As the oversized scissors snapped shut with a satisfying, crisp sound, the crowd erupted in cheers.
The ceremony at the new Behavioral Health Crisis Center included speeches by several officials including University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
County Manager Julie Morgas Baca says this is the culmination of almost a decade of work aimed at filling gaps in mental health care in Albuquerque and around the state.
“We’ve been working on it since I became the county manager back in 2015,” she said “so this is a dream come true not just for me but for the entire community”
The center is a joint venture of Bernalillo County and UNM, with both entities putting $20 million toward the project. The county raised the funds from a tax approved by voters in 2014
President Stokes said this is just one crucial step of many needed to address mental healthcare in the state.
“I know that we’ve got a lot of plans in the works because we’re really looking at the healthcare needs of New Mexico and realizing that it’s not something that any one entity can do alone,” she said. “So, we’re really kind of putting together a framework of what it could look like over the next 10 years.”
The nearly 50,000 square foot facility will include a crisis triage center for adults where they can stay up to 14 days. There’s also a pediatric emergency center, and a peer living room for walk-in services and more.
The facility is meant to bridge the gap for patients who don’t need traditional inpatient care, but require more support than is offered by regular outpatient services.
Medical Director Elisabeth Ferre says the facility is meant to be a mental health emergency room, where patients will be assessed, stabilized, and transferred to other facilities if longer-term care is required.
The facility also takes drop-offs from law enforcement, corrections and first responders, which is aimed at easing the burden on regular ERs.
The center could be the first of several of these centers opening around the state if lawmakers pass legislation to do so in an upcoming special session.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
