Bernalillo County adopts three-year Behavioral Health Authority strategic plan

Bernalillo County commissioners voted 5-0 on Jan. 28 to adopt a three-year Behavioral Health Authority strategic plan that reorganizes county behavioral health services, establishes new governance and sets funding priorities tied to the county's behavioral-health gross receipts tax.

The plan, drafted by Deputy County Manager for Behavioral Health Dr. Jason Lindstrom with contractor Pivot Evaluation and approved Jan. 16 by the Behavioral Health Advisory Board, lays out a three-department structure for a newly created Behavioral Health Division, a data-driven operations unit, and an emphasis on crisis response, recovery supports and sustainable funding.

County leaders said the plan aims to turn local revenue streams into a coordinated continuum of services. The plan identifies projected funding sources including behavioral-health gross receipts tax revenue (projected at roughly $32 million annually) and available opioid-settlement dollars (estimated at $23.2 million), and calls for maximizing Medicaid billing and contracting an administrative services organization to handle provider payments and quality oversight.

"The plan envisions building a behavioral health crisis response system that will provide help 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Dr. Lindstrom said during his presentation, describing components such as 988 and 911 integration, mobile crisis teams and crisis triage centers for short-term stabilization.

The plan assigns the county deputy manager the role of overseeing the new Behavioral Health Division, and creates an advisory board and two technical committees to advise on services, workforce policy, and public education. Programs already operating under the county's Behavioral Health Initiative'including the tiny home village, the resource reentry center and the family wellness shelter'will shift under the authority of the new division'specifically the office of recovery support.

Holly Mehl and Joseph Shaw, chair and vice chair of the county's Behavioral Health Advisory Board, presented the board's endorsement of the plan. Shaw, who described his own path from program client to program director, said the board views peer and lived-experience staffing as central to long-term recovery supports.

Commissioners emphasized the plan's focus on prevention, community-based care and data transparency. The adopted plan requires annual progress reporting to the commission each Sept. 1; Dr. Lindstrom and staff were directed to deliver a two-year implementation plan and annual work plans, with detailed metrics and public dashboards to track outcomes.

Commissioners also amended the draft plan to broaden language about naloxone distribution to encompass "naloxone, other health and wellness supply distribution" and to remove a separate paragraph that had listed overdose prevention centers (also called safe-use sites) as a line item; the amendment to remove that paragraph passed 3-2. The larger strategic plan passed 5-0.

The county will now move from strategy to operations: the deputy county manager and the advisory board will work on resource allocation, contracting strategy, and reporting timelines so county-operated services and funded providers can scale up as recommended.

Commissioners and presenters said they consider the adoption the start of a multi-year implementation effort to expand access to crisis care, prevention programming and recovery supports in Bernalillo County.