24-hour crisis center to provide behavioral health services
Bernalillo County on Tuesday opened its first 24-hour crisis triage and treatment center to provide behavioral health services for those who might otherwise end up in a hospital’s emergency department, jail, or be sent back into the community still struggling with severe behavioral and mental health issues.
The crisis center is in a 70,000-square-foot renovated space within what was formerly called the Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services center, or MATS, at 5901 Zuni SE. It has 16 beds in semiprivate rooms, though some rooms can be converted for single occupancy as necessary for Americans with Disabilities Act clients, said Margarita Chávez-Sanchez, interim director of Behavioral Health Services for Bernalillo County. The center will begin taking clients Dec. 2. MATS is a voluntary detox center for adults, which also provides a public inebriate intervention program and a supportive after-care program. MATS, along with the new crisis center, will now be called the Comprehensive Assessment and Resiliency through Excellence campus, or CARE.
The detox programs will continue to operate independently.
Noting that this center alone is not enough to deal with the number of people in the county who are in need of crisis stabilization, County Manager Julie Morgas Baca said the University of New Mexico Hospital is expected to build a larger center soon in partnership with the county and near the hospital.
That free-standing building will be in addition to and not as a replacement for the new, 16-bed center. The main building on the CARE campus has been renamed the William H. Wiese Treatment and Resilience Center, in recognition of Dr. William Wiese, a longtime volunteer who helped shape many of the programs being offered on the new campus.
Initially, clients will be admitted by referral from UNM Hospital, which will provide many of the on-site medical services. Later, patient referrals will come from law enforcement agencies and other first responders, family members or selfreferrals from patients themselves.
Patients will be able to stay for up to 14 days. They will immediately be assigned a case manager to work with them on an exit plan, which may include identifying a client’s housing needs, employment needs, if they’re trying to be reunited with their families and other considerations. Therapists will offer such things as art and journaling therapies and movement therapies such as yoga, Chávez-Sanchez said.
One advantage of being on the same campus as the detox program is that “we can help triage and assess people to see if they need to detox first, and then move them into crisis stabilization later,” she said.
Stabilization services will tie into additional “step-down” programs so that people who have completed their stay will be supported by wraparound services to help them remain stabilized, recover and achieve wellness, she added.
The opening of the CARE campus is the latest effort in the county’s Behavioral Health Initiative, said Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley, who is among the county commissioners who have long advocated for the establishment of the crisis center.
In the past four years, the county says, it has funded more than 20 programs and issued more than $19 million in recurring dollars to form a regional behavioral health system that has served more than 52,700 people.
Opening the crisis triage and stabilization center was a circuitous journey, O’Malley said, involving “working with the state Legislature to amend some laws, create regulations and operational procedures, get licenses, leverage existing funding and foster partnerships.”
Funding for the center comes from voter-approved gross receipts taxes, which raise about $22.5 million a year. Renovation at the former MATS site cost about $1.5 million; recurring annual operational costs are expected to be another $1.5 million, though those costs could be less because the center will be working with UNM Hospital, allowing some of the services to be covered by Medicare, she said.
County officials also said that through a contract with UNM Hospital, the center is the first phase in the long-term plan for the campus, which includes adding an Observation Assessment Unit, an Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic and a Living Room Model program.
County Commission Chairwoman Maggie Hart Stebbins, who could not attend the event, said in a news release that planning the center has been a complex undertaking requiring the cooperation and support of many stakeholders.
“We are grateful to our Governor, our State Legislators, and our partners at UNM Hospitals who have all played a key role in making this possible,” she said in the news release.
O’Malley said that ideally, all the hospitals in the Albuquerque area could incorporate a similar facility, as could some community organizations.
“We don’t need to run everything,” she said. “We can work with other partners.”