“We want you at that table so that we can make it better,” Health Care Authority Behavioral Health Services Division Director Nick Boukas told public health councils on Wednesday at a conference on May 7, 2025 in Albuquerque. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)

New Mexico’s top adult mental health services official on Wednesday laid out a timeline for rebuilding the state’s systems for addressing mental health challenges, including substance use disorder.

At a public health conference in Albuquerque, Health Care Authority Behavioral Health Services Division Director Nick Boukas detailed how mental health treatment will change as a result of New Mexico enacting Senate Bill 3, known as the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act.

Boukas said his division will work with the Administrative Office of the Courts to divide the state into behavioral health regions and “investment zones,” each of which will identify five behavioral health priorities over the next four years.

The priorities will come from feedback from local communities, including local public health councils, local behavioral health collaboratives and advocates, Boukas said.

“We want you at that table so that we can make it better,” Boukas told the crowd gathered at the conference. “We know that one size does not fit all.”

Boukas’ comments came during the Community Collaborative Forum hosted by the New Mexico Alliance of Health Councils, at which hundreds of people — including state agency heads, state lawmakers and public health researchers — met in person and online to debrief this year’s legislative session and prepare for potential federal funding cuts.

In the recent legislative session, New Mexico allocated $4 million for health councils in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Lt. Gov. Howie Morales gave the event’s keynote address during which he said the funds mark the biggest ever investment of state funds in health councils.

Health councils’ advocates have struggled in recent years to receive funding from state lawmakers. Morales said when he was still a state senator, he remembers “not all health councils were able to survive” funding cuts the Legislature enacted.

“I believe in preventative measures,” Morales said. “We can talk about all of the back-end issues that we deal with — crime, homelessness, substance abuse — but if we continue to invest like we just did, this $4 million, you work on it on the front end, the investment pays off in multiple ways.”

New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales highlighted the $4 million allocated by state lawmakers for health councils in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year during a conference on May 7, 2025 in Albuquerque. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)

According to a timeline Boukas presented at the forum, last week AOC began providing HCA with monthly updates on the regional plans.

On Monday, HCA hired Kristie Brooks, a former federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration official, as the state’s director of behavioral health transformation and innovation. Boukas said she will help him implement SB3.

“She understands rural communities, tribal communities, behavioral health and how we make all that work together,” he said.

By June 1, the Behavioral Health Services Division will provide AOC with behavioral health standards and service evaluation guidelines, according to the timeline, and by the end of this year, the state’s Medicaid program will establish a group of licensing boards to help streamline mental health providers’ credentialing.

Planning meetings will be public

SB3 repealed the old Behavioral Health Collaborative, which will be replaced with the new Behavioral Health Executive Committee, who will be responsible for implementing the new law, Boukas said.

The executive committee will include the Health Care Authority cabinet secretary, the Behavioral Health Services Division director, the Medicaid program director, the AOC and the Legislative Finance Committee, he said, noting that AOC is vetting three behavioral health experts to also work on the committee, and their appointments will be announced soon.

The committee will hold meetings open to the public in Santa Fe and online every quarter, and report back to the LFC, Boukas said.

The Behavioral Health Trust Fund created in Senate Bill 1 will start paying out in July 2026.

The money must be equitably shared between each region’s priorities; may be used for projects up to four years in length; may be used to cover people without health insurance; and up to 5% of it can be for emergencies like mental health services during disasters like wildfires, Boukas said.

By June 30, 2027, the executive committee will find a responsible government entity in each region to write progress reports on gaps in care and services provided, and hand them over to LFC, according to Boukas’ timeline.

“This isn’t just a blank check that’s going to go out the door,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re turning these into measurable outcomes.”

Also on June 30, 2027, the state’s Medicaid program is expected to establish a universal behavioral health provider enrollment and credentialing process for Medicaid, according to the timeline.

Then on July 1, 2027, HCA will analyze gaps in behavioral health care to inform the regional plans, and then repeat the analysis every two years thereafter, the timeline states.

Boukas said he expects many regions to have the same top three priorities already found in health councils’ community health improvement plans: access to care, behavioral health and substance use disorder.

When Boukas asked the crowd if he was missing anything, someone shouted out, “Housing!”

“That’s in here too,” he responded. “But we want you to tell us where we need that housing, and what type of housing. So we need you at this table, we want you at this table.”

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