Bernalillo County residents may soon see a different, more efficient network aimed at helping them meet their behavioral health needs.

The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved the publication of an ordinance that would create a behavioral health authority that would unify county behavioral health efforts. Vice Chair Eric Olivas said before the meeting that behavioral health functions are spread across multiple county departments today. The proposed agency would place all those services together and coordinate efforts with the state government, the city of Albuquerque, providers, educational institutions and other entities.

Olivas and Commissioner Adriann Barboa are sponsoring the legislation.

Olivas said the ordinance is likely to change significantly before adoption, as the board seeks public input on its contents.

In particular, Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said commissioners want to hear what experts in the field, such as providers and administrators, have to say.

“The overarching mission shall be to institute a no-wrong-door approach where those seeking behavioral health care or related support services of any kind in our region may enter the system at any point and receive access to the high-quality care they need,” the proposed ordinance says.

Making their case

Barboa said that her interest in behavioral health was the reason she ran for office. She said she looks forward to working with various community stakeholders on finalizing the ordinance.

“Let’s build the system that our communities need,” Barboa said.

Olivas said the effort has been years in the making. 

“To draft this ordinance, we drew on the work product of many outstanding individuals, both staff members and volunteers for the county and contractors that we hire, that have produced so much information over the years,” he said.

In 2014, county commissioners imposed a one-eighth percent gross receipts tax to raise money to improve access to mental and behavioral health care services.

Olivas said that action led to the formation of the Bernalillo County Behavioral Health Initiative, tasked with using the money raised by the new tax.

“We were one of the first communities in the nation to step up and say ‘this is a priority; behavioral health is a priority,’” Olivas said. “And so we lead the nation, but that also meant that we didn’t have a playbook.”

Now 10 years in, the county is in a position to set long-term goals.

Support from colleagues 

The other commissioners expressed support for the idea. 

“I’ve had homelessness in my neighborhood for 60 years,” Quezada said. “I’ve had drug addicts in my neighborhood for 60 years. I’ve had behavioral health issues in my neighborhood for 60 years. So I’m with trying to do something more and I’m with trying to do something maybe different.”

Quezada said he hopes nonprofits in his district will get involved and help design the final ordinance.

“Because they’re the boots on the ground,” he said. “They’re the experts.”

Commissioner Walt Benson said he’s concerned about whether a final version of the ordinance will be ready to vote on in a month, given the level of community input being sought.

Commission Chair Barbara Baca commended Olivas and Barboa’s leadership on the issue and said she’s glad to see so many stakeholders invited to the table. She said adopting an ordinance could be key to the county remaining a behavioral health leader. 

An early outline

Among the new agency’s duties would be to fund critically needed behavioral health services to people experiencing severe mental illness, substance use issues, and housing insecurity, the draft ordinance states. This would be done directly and through third-party service providers.

The draft ordinance lists the behavioral health authority as having as its head a commission-appointed deputy county manager. Other staff would include a medical advisor and a senior project coordinator.

One of the deputy county manager’s duties would be to supervise the creation of a five-year strategic plan, to be updated every three years. The plan would, among other features:

• Emphasize prevention and intervention.
• Grow treatment resources.
• Identify target populations for the provision of services.
• Identify gaps in services and propose solutions that address those gaps.
• Launch a public dashboard to share data with the public and list the agency’s contracts, compliance statuses, treatment vacancy rates, real-time budget data and other information.

The ordinance will be posted for 30 days, as required by law, and then returned to the board for final adoption in May.