A state commission on Thursday approved a plan to upgrade behavioral health services in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties, with an emphasis on expanding medication-assisted treatment for addiction, and detox and crisis services.
The plan stems from the 2025 New Mexico Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act, also known as Senate Bill 3, which tasks the state Administrative Office of the Courts with coordinating the development of regional behavioral health plans to expand services throughout the state.
The tri-county Behavioral Health Region One, which makes up the state’s First Judicial District, is expected to receive more than $8 million for mental health and substance abuse treatment over the next three years. The investment — which will likely take months or years to be fully realized — comes as two of the region’s three counties have experienced rising rates of overdose deaths, despite declines nationwide.
“They took feedback from the community,” said Nick Boukas, director of the New Mexico Health Care Authority’s Behavioral Health Services Division. “They identified what the gaps are, and I feel like it was a pretty comprehensive plan.”
Over the past year, local governments, tribal officials, patients and providers across New Mexico have been identifying gaps in behavioral health care and drafting plans for improvements tailored to their region. So far, the state Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act Executive Committee has approved two plans — one for Bernalillo County as well as Region One’s — with nine more set to go before the panel next month.
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Accomplishing all of that work in a year was a “tall order,” Santa Fe County Community Services Director Anne Ryan said. It required quick, decisive action and tough choices about how to allocate the $8 million — which, in the grand scheme of state budgets and healthcare spending, is a relatively tiny sum.
“We see this as a living, breathing, dynamic document intended to change over time, as new information is learned,” Ryan said. “To consider it static or in any way not changeable over the next several years would be an error in thinking.”
What’s the plan?
Through months of study and public input, seven priorities rose to the top of Behavioral Health Region One’s list:
- Drug withdrawal management and crisis stabilization services amid rising overdose death rates, inadequate detox capacity and overreliance on jail-based detox.
- Expansion of medication-assisted treatment for drug addiction.
- Youth behavioral health and crisis stabilization care, amid high rates of depression and suicidal ideation and few options for kids in crisis.
- Programs to attract and retain the behavioral health workforce — such as social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric nurses — amid statewide staffing shortages.
- A regionwide navigation system to serve as a central repository for referrals and care options, and on-call transportation to medical care.
- Expanding access to affordable housing.
- Preventing the cycle of addiction across the age spectrum, including outreach to rural and underserved communities and expansion of access to harm-reduction tools like naloxone and fentanyl test strips.
Under the behavioral health reform law, however, each region was allowed just five priorities.
Organizers opted to remove housing and youth behavioral health from their final proposal due to significant investments in both issues by Santa Fe County — where nearly three quarters of Region One residents live. The county is developing a dedicated mental health facility to serve the region’s youth and plans to funnel about $9.4 million into affordable housing programs in fiscal year 2027, a sum considerably higher than in previous years.
The regional proposal also notes expanding affordable housing access is “beyond what is financially feasible with the available … funding.”
Divvying the funds
Under the proposal, expanding substance abuse services will take up just over $3 million. Rio Arriba County is set to receive about $1 million to expand residential capacity at Darrin’s Place, a drug treatment facility in Española, by 50% and ensure adequate staffing by nurses and on-call medical providers.
Santa Fe County, meanwhile, would receive $1.9 million to help expand facilities at La Sala Crisis Center, which assists adults experiencing behavioral health crises or detoxing from drug or alcohol use. That money will fund part of the purchase of an additional building for the center to accommodate growing demand, plus remodel and equipment costs.
Both counties will pilot transportation programs to ensure residents can get to treatment.
Rio Arriba County will implement an on-demand transportation program at Darrin’s Place, while La Sala plans to use a mix of bus passes, train tickets and on-demand ride services available through the North Central Regional Transit District’s MyBlue and the United Way of North Central New Mexico’s Ride United programs.
As part of the proposal, Region One will contract out $1.6 million in training initiatives to build the behavioral health provider workforce, as well as $2 million in prevention programs aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths.
After setting aside $1.2 million for administrative costs, the region will use the remaining $300,000 to continue to implement a tri-county network linking clinics, community organizations and government programs to address residents’ basic needs, like housing, food and transportation. That money will also go toward expanding on-demand transportation to medical appointments.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Overdose deaths
Ryan said the organizers of the proposal were “dutiful soldiers” in divvying up money for behavioral health solutions.
“Eight million dollars over three fiscal years is not a lot — so that is just a reality check. … We agree with everybody who says, ‘Well, what about this? What about that? What about this? What about that?’ There’s got to be a funding source for it,” Ryan said.
She added, her team placed particular focus on substance abuse treatment options, as opioid overdose deaths continue to rise in Northern New Mexico despite declining nationwide. New Mexico stood out in federal data released earlier this year as one of just a few states with rising rates of overdose deaths.
The state saw about 4% more overdose deaths in a 12-month period that ended in August 2025, compared to the same period the previous year. Northern New Mexico has been hit particularly hard by the rising rates: Drug overdose deaths and emergency room visits increased in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Taos counties in early 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to data from the state Health Department.
“We have to prioritize fatalities,” Ryan said.
With the regional plan approved, local governments and providers in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties can start putting it into action.
“I think we’re making really good progress as far as the plans and then getting the money out the door, so I’m very excited about that,” said Boukas, who also chairs the state behavioral health reform committee.
He added, “And then we can start to see: As we’re doing this work, are we really moving the needle and making the difference that we hope we will be making?”
