Mental health issues aren’t criminal issues

Mental health issues are health issues, not criminal issues. The separation of behavioral health from criminal justice — and the allocation of resources specific to each — will make each system more efficient and more cost effective. It is time to stop using the Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility as our largest mental health facility.

Santa Fe recognizes that police officers better serve the public, our hospitals and jails by taking troubled adults to a behavioral health crisis center instead of an ER or jail. Voters endorsed an increased gross receipts tax in order to build and maintain just such a behavioral health crisis center, to be up and running in the next two years.

The cost for this center will be offset by less reliance on the hospital system and the criminal legal system. Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center will retain some beds for adults experiencing acute mental illness, but treatment options at the behavioral health center will reduce the need for many inpatient services.

However, as Ana G y Reinhart said in her My View (“There’s more we can do to help our kids,” Aug. 31), Santa Fe youth experiencing mental illness do not have the same care options. There are no psychiatric beds for people under age 18 in Santa Fe County. Currently, youths experiencing mental illness are sent elsewhere for treatment, removing them from family and community. This does not need to happen. The Santa Fe County Youth Development Program provides housing facilities for pre-adjudicated youths and has most of it beds available. This facility already exists and is supported by taxes. It provides a real option for helping troubled youths, homeless youths and youths in crisis.

Mental health issues are health issues, not criminal issues. It is not a crime to be mentally ill. It was luck that during the decades I was actively mentally ill, my female white privilege shielded me from incarceration. Many are not so fortunate. Too often the criminal legal system is used to deal with mental health issues. It’s time for this to stop.

It’s time to treat those with mental illness, especially our youth, with compassion. Let’s get to work on this.

Anne Albrink is a retired lawyer in remission from bipolar disorder.

It’s time to treat those with mental illness, especially our youth, with compassion.