Heads Together on Mental Health

There are probably 200 things that need to happen to improve mental health care in Northern New Mexico, says Pamela Hyde, President Obama's former appointee to head the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Administration. "The question is, What are one or two things we can do right now?"

Hyde spoke with SFR during a daylong meeting she facilitated at the Eldorado Hotel downtown. For the better part of Thursday, a diverse mix of professionals—including police, nurses, firefighters, judges, health care providers, corrections workers, hospital administrators, mental health advocates and county-level elected officials—gathered in an open convention room to share ideas on treating behavioral health issues. They sipped coffee and ate roast beef sandwiches.

Santa Fe County officials organized the invite-only summit to improve collaboration with Rio Arriba, Taos and Los Alamos counties and fix the region's mental health system, one that was decimated by the 2013 behavioral health shakeup that forced many local nonprofits to close their doors, in favor of an out-of-state corporation that has since pulled up stakes here.

During a late afternoon panel discussion, representatives from the four counties shared what has worked in their communities. Los Alamos Municipal Judge Alan Kirk touted two programs that connect youth and families to basic resources like food and clothing, as well as mental health services. "Anytime you can get a group to collaborate, you add strength," Kirk tells SFR.

Rio Arriba Health and Human Services Director Lauren Reichelt spoke about Pathways, a care-coordination model that focuses on specific groups of people, from pregnant women with substance abuse problems to frequent ER visitors.

Taos County Manager Leandro Cordova said he has been taking cues from some of the bigger counties in the room. "Santa Fe County has been working on this for a while," Cordova tells SFR. "We can learn from them instead of re-inventing the wheel and wasting taxpayer dollars."

Led by Hyde, the 60 or so attendees brainstormed seven priorities for the counties to work on, which were plastered over a wall on easel-sized paper. The ideas ranged from broad, like "economic intervention," to specific, like implementing campus-style triage systems to address crises and offering universal behavioral health screening for youth.

The group's recommendations will eventually be compiled into a report. But first, Hyde says, "more work will be done" to narrow the scope of their broader priorities.

County Commissioner Miguel Chavez, who sponsored the summit, says he hopes this will be the first of four meetings, though no additional sessions have been scheduled yet.

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