Lisa Hampton, chair of the Los Alamos County Health Council, told the County Council on Oct. 21 that the health council is pursuing suicide prevention, crisis response planning, peer-support expansion and a community health action center, and said the council’s state contract funds several of those efforts.

The council’s fiscal-year 2026 Department of Health contract is for $67,995, with an additional $40,000 available depending on which initiatives the council undertakes, Jessica Strong, social services department manager, said. Hampton said the council continues to implement the county comprehensive health plan and to align work with the New Mexico Department of Health.

The Health Council is one of several local boards that submits a work plan to the state and receives Department of Health funding, Strong said. The council’s priorities this year include outreach on older-adult health, youth and family services, suicide prevention, mental health and substance-use needs, and participation in the regional behavioral-health planning created by Senate Bill 3 (the Behavioral Health Investment and Reform Act).

Hampton said the council is implementing a closed-loop referral system (the vendor Unite Us) that social services uses to track referrals and follow referrals from intake to resolution. Strong said Unite Us helps social services and community partners manage referrals and service coordination.

On crisis response, Hampton said the council has begun meetings with police and first responders to examine dispatch data and possible response models. She cautioned the effort is in the early stages and that a small rural county is unlikely to staff a 24/7 mobile-response team; instead, the council and staff are looking for targeted options such as post-crisis outreach and coordinated referrals.

The council is also pursuing peer-support options for people exiting detention or the justice system. Hampton said a courts-issued request for proposals for a peer-support specialist received no responses; staff and partners will meet to develop alternate approaches.

Hampton described the Health Action Center working group’s process and recommendation. The working group — a subgroup of the Health Council that deliberately formed with fewer than a quorum of council members and several community stakeholders — met from March through May to draft a vision and functional requirements for a centralized community health action center. According to the presentation, the Health Council reviewed the working group’s report, solicited public input, and approved the recommendations 9-0 before forwarding them to county project managers and social services for site selection and architectural work.

Strong and Hampton described local coordination on homelessness outreach and housing navigation. Strong said social services will soon have six full-time equivalents and one part‑time casual staffer dedicated to those efforts once a program specialist hire is finalized; those positions help with SNAP and Medicaid navigation, help for people at risk of homelessness, and referrals to partners such as LA Cares and Self Help. Strong said social services uses its mobile-outreach grant-funded position to meet people where they are — for example, at encampments, in cars or in places where someone is living in a vehicle — and that the department has developed a close working relationship with the Los Alamos Police Department to coordinate safety and outreach.

Councilors asked for historical funding and staffing comparisons. Strong said stafftrack funding sources and can supply a before-and-after table showing what programs and staff have been added since the comprehensive health plan work began.

Hampton noted the health council’s involvement in the first-judicial-district behavioral-health planning under SB3: the region’s letter of intent is due in October and would release $60,000 for planning; future implementation grants could be as large as $2 million per district, she said. Hampton characterized those regional planning efforts as a separate but aligned track to the council’s local work.

The council’s presentation listed community outreach activities (health fairs, library and farmers market hours, monthly newspaper pieces by council members), partnerships with nonprofits and schools, and work with the New Mexico Alliance of Health Councils.

Hampton and Strong said next steps include continued planning for crisis response and peer supports, advancing the design and site selection process for the Health Action Center via county project managers, and returning with additional data and materials on budgets, staffing and external grants when available.

The Health Council’s presentation and related materials are available by request from social services, Strong said; staff offered to circulate the working-group report and presentation slides to council members on request.

Speakers included Lisa Hampton (chair, Los Alamos County Health Council), Jessica Strong (Social Services department manager), Jill DeHaven (vice chair, Los Alamos County Health Council), Councilor Reardon (council liaison to the Health Council) and Councilor Reiting (council member who asked about funding comparisons).

Notes: The Health Council presentation stated the council had approved the Health Action Center working-group recommendations by a 9-0 vote before delivering the report to county staff for project implementation. The Los Alamos County Health Council’s Department of Health contract and the SB3 planning process were described during the briefing.

Ending: County staff and the Health Council said they will return with more-detailed funding and staffing comparisons, file copies of the working-group report on request, and continue coordination with regional partners on SB3 planning and local crisis-response scoping.