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Let's Talk New Mexico

Let's talk behavioral health reform

By Daniel Montaño
Published September 18, 2026 at 2:25 PM MDT
Director of the Behavioral Health Division of the New Mexico Health Care Authority, Nick Boukas, also serves as the chair of the executive committee charged with reforming behavioral health infrastructure within the state. At a meeting this week, the committee announced it would be issuing early access funding to get the ball rolling building up urgently needed services while crafting the larger overall reform structure.
Austin Fisher
/
Source New Mexico
Director of the Behavioral Health Division of the New Mexico Health Care Authority, Nick Boukas, also serves as the chair of the executive committee charged with reforming behavioral health infrastructure within the state.

Let’s Talk New Mexico, 9/24, 9a: Advocates have been calling for behavioral health reform for more than a decade. In 2025 the state legislature passed a bill aimed at doing just that. At first what’s known as Senate Bill 3, or SB3, was met with bipartisan praise. But there have been bumps in the road now that the plan is in action. A former member of the executive committee, tasked with overseeing implementation, called out several problems including reimbursement issues that overly burden rural areas, how SB3 infringes on tribal sovereignty, and much more.

This week on Let’s Talk New Mexico we’re going to have the people at the heart of this on the show. We’ll discuss what’s happened so far, what still needs to happen, and how we can get there, and we want to hear from you. What does your local area need to address mental health and substance abuse issues? How should the state be handling this reform? Join the conversation and give us your take. Call in live during the show Thursday morning at 9, send an email to letstalk@kunm.org, or send a voice message using the link below.

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Daniel Montaño
Daniel Montaño is a reporter with KUNM's Public Health, Poverty and Equity project. He is also an occasional host of Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Let's Talk New Mexico since 2021, is a born and bred Burqueño who first started with KUNM about two decades ago, as a production assistant while he was in high school. During the intervening years, he studied journalism at UNM, lived abroad, fell in and out of love, conquered here and there, failed here and there, and developed a taste for advocating for human rights.
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