Bernalillo County’s Behavioral Health Crisis Center is scheduled to open for patients later this month, with a ribbon cutting set for June 14.
“It’s a major milestone in the evolution of the Bernalillo County and University of New Mexico Hospital efforts to address behavioral health challenges and provide a continuum of care,” said Julie Morgas Baca, Bernalillo County manager.
The center, located at 2600 Marble Ave. NE, is designed to keep people needing mental health help from having to go to the emergency room or jail, Morgas Baca said.
The center is a result of a partnership between Bernalillo County, the University of New Mexico Health Center and the community — which approved a tax dedicated to behavioral health care in 2014. Morgas Baca said at its initiation the gross receipt tax generated $17 million and now the tax generates around $30 million per fiscal year and is expected to bring in $34.8 million in fiscal year 2025.
The 48,699-square-foot center includes three parts: a crisis triage center, psychiatric emergency services and a peer-based living room. The center also has group therapy rooms, community day rooms and dining support services. There’s a separate entrance for law enforcement to bring in patients who need help.
“When I became the manager in 2015, it became obvious that the community was very interested in developing a crisis triage center and building a crisis triage center for the community because we didn’t have anything like that,” Morgas Baca said.
She said it’s taken a while to build the services associated with the center because there hadn’t been anything like this in Bernalillo County before.
Building a system of care
Rodney McNease, senior executive director of governmental affairs at UNMH, said a huge amount of work went into building a new system of care.
“A lot of this work has come from multiple kinds of initiatives and reports over time that point out the gaps in our system of care,” he said. “One of the clear gaps is really related to the crisis triage center component.”
The system currently has inpatient hospital care and regular outpatient care, but McNease said there isn’t much for people who are in the middle.
“They don’t necessarily need to be inpatient at a psychiatric hospital, but they need a lot more support than just outpatient care,” he said.
The 16-bed crisis triage center is next to the adult psychiatric hospital. McNease said UNMH significantly expanded and rebuilt their psychiatric emergency department in the same facility, “so you’ll have a continuum of crisis emergency services.”
Peer living room model
One thing McNease said UNMH is excited about is the peer living room model, similar to an outpatient clinic.
“So if somebody just feels like they need some more support, but they don’t necessarily need clinical services — they may need just to talk to somebody, they may need assistance trying to get a resume together — people can come in and do those kinds of activities,” he said.
McNease said not everyone who comes to the center has to stay overnight.
“We also anticipate a lot of folks could come and see a provider,” he said. “They may need to have their medications refilled. They might need to have some things like that and then they would be able to go about their day.”
A healing, supportive environment
Morgas Baca said officials are trying to “take the clinical part out” of the Behavioral Health Crisis Center.
The center, Morgas Baca said, was created to be a supportive place of healing and a growth-oriented environment where individuals can work on their mental health challenges.
“We want it to be a really safe, comfortable place for somebody to go that’s on the streets, that feels like they need the services…they can walk in the door and that’s where they can get help,” she said.
McNease said getting to this point has been a huge commitment from both the county and UNMH throughout the years.
“We’re just extraordinarily excited that we’re pretty much here now,” he said.