Regional mental health facility receives wide support

The idea of a regional behavioral health facility for Curry, Roosevelt, Quay and De Baca counties seemed to have wide support among public officials, public safety first-responders and health professionals who gathered Thursday in Portales to hear a report on such a facility’s feasibility.

James Corbett, principal of Initium Health, the Denver-based consulting firm that conducted the feasibility study, told the assembly in Portales’ Yam Theater that experience and insight from interviews and a work session in March demonstrated a behavioral health facility that could treat patients close to home was needed and desirable.

The 2017 library shooting in Clovis, which left two dead and four injured, may have been prevented, Corbett said, with more comprehensive behavioral health facilities available in eastern New Mexico.

The shooter’s mental health issues may have been identified and treated in time to prevent the shooting, he said.

“Rural communities face mental health challenges equal to those in urban areas,” he said, “but they don’t have the facilities.”

In the four counties that would be served by the behavioral health facility, he said, there are 14,000 to 18,000 people who suffer from behavioral health issues in an area with a population of 77,354 people, according to U.S. Census data.

Only 1,569 patients of 5,577 who were found to have substance-abuse issues received treatment in 2020, according to information Corbett presented.

Corbett said the design of a behavioral health facility should be calming. and the facility should be centrally located to be convenient to the largest population to be served.

Kate Bailey, a senior consultant with Initium Health, said while the state of New Mexico is in a state of mental health crisis, eastern New Mexico has nothing in the way of centralized mental health treatment centers.

Families of patients must travel hours to visit with patients housed in Amarillo or Lubbock in Texas, even as far away as Las Cruces and El Paso, Texas.

Many families cannot afford to travel that far, she said.

Law enforcement and emergency medical personnel must take hours away from other duties to transport patients to treatment centers, she said.

Dr. Laura Bergroth, a physician consultant with Initium, said New Mexico needs 442 behavioral health beds per 100,000 population, but it has only 50 per 100,000 people.

A facility that would allow mental health patients to weather a crisis would leave more facilities and medical staff to care for physical health emergencies such as heart attacks in hospital emergency rooms.

A properly designed behavioral health facility, she said, would allow for quiet space where a patient could “crack open a window or play some music” to ease the “institutional feel” of a treatment facility.

Bergroth estimated a behavioral health facility to serve Curry, Roosevelt, Quay and DeBaca counties would require 77,442 square feet and about 253 full-time employees. The facility would need psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and social workers, she said.

Jacob Buchheim, a financial consultant working with Initium, estimated the facility would require capital expenditures of $45 million, of which $29 million would be construction costs. The facility would require special fixtures, such as furniture that would be bolted to the floor, he said.

Among government funded options to finance the project, Buchheim said, financing through the New Mexico Finance Authority would be the best option, but there are other state and federal primary care funds and tax credit funds that could be pursued. Funding through U.S. Congress could be used as well.

Public-private partnership would be another option, Buchheim said. He named several companies that work in public private partnerships.

Companies such LEON Health, a health maintenance organization, and Signet Health, which provides contract management services to hospitals and behavioral health facilities, would be willing to partner with publicly funded institutions, he said.

Financing would cover the cost of the first five years of operation, he said, before the facility would start operating profitably by receiving fees for services. Buchheim said as early as 2027, the facility could earn profits as high as $2.7 million.

District 63 State Rep. Martin Zamora asked whether several smaller behavioral health centers would be a better option than one regional facility.

Corbett said a larger facility would take advantage of economies of scale and be more cost-efficient.

Lt. Col. Cynthia Rutherford, a psychiatrist at Cannon Air Force Base, said Air Force personnel and their families would benefit greatly from a behavioral health facility nearby. The need, she said, is urgent.

Sean Martinez, who leads security at Roosevelt General Hospital, said his experience as a Clovis police officer and at the hospital demonstrates the need for a behavioral health facility to serve the region.

When he worked the hospital’s emergency room, he said, sometimes half of the rooms were filled with potential suicide patients.

As a police officer, he said, there were many times he dealt with mental health situations that would have been better handled at a behavioral health facility.

A behavioral health facility, he said, would receive a lot of walk-in patients “with the right advertising and the right funding.”

A speaker who identified herself as an elementary school teacher warned that behavioral health issues that begin in childhood are increasing, especially from abusive situations.

“As tough as it is now, it’s going to get worse,” she said. The behavioral health facility would be a “unifying force” in placing behavioral health resources within reach in the four-county area.

Clovis City Manager Justin Howalt said a regional behavioral health facility would be a “great first step” in meeting behavioral health needs in the area.

In 2017, the year of the library shooting, he said, “the city of Clovis could not find help” to deal with that issue. Now, he said, “we have started the conversation.”

Cities and counties are able to collaborate, he said, and should “continue with that collaboration.”