Representatives and officials brainstorm for facility

CLOVIS - About 50 representatives of public safety, public health, behavioral health, non-profit agencies and elected officials gathered Friday to brainstorm ideas for a regional mental health facility that would serve Curry, Roosevelt, De Baca and Quay counties.

The session, held at the Clovis-Carver Public Library, was billed as a town hall organized by Initium, a public benefit healthcare company based in Denver that is conducting a feasibility study to learn if and how a central behavioral health facility can be established to serve the four-county area.

The participants divided into four groups at random to ensure diversity of interests in each group, James Corbett, Initium's chief executive officer said. They conducted four sessions to collect ideas, then reconvened after each session to list the ideas, which were collected to be evaluated as part of the feasibility study.

The discussions revealed:

The logistics of transporting patients back and forth to behavioral health facilities and professionals for services and prescription drugs is taxing. Families often have difficulty visiting patients in behavioral health facilities that are often located hours away from patients' homes and families.

Corbett said the distance between behavioral health facilities often disrupts the steps of care for behavioral health patients, which often involve changes in settings and methods.

Ambulance and police vehicles are subject to hard-to-understand rules about which service can transfer patients for what purpose.

"We can take a patient to an evaluation," Clovis Fire Chief Mike Nolen said, "but not to a facility for treatment." Police vehicles must be used for that purpose, he said.

Detention officials said jails are often the shelter of last resort for behavioral health patients, who cannot be released without court authorization, resulting in long jail stays for patients who have not committed crimes.

"We sometimes have to wait for a competency ruling from the district court" before an inmate who is mentally ill can be released, said Mark Gallegos, administrator of the Curry County Adult Detention Center. "and that can take weeks."

Police officers said they do not have behavioral health training, even though they are often called to deal with behavioral health emergencies. They said a local facility that could securely accept behavioral health patients in emergencies would be helpful.

There was also agreement that the facility should be placed somewhere in the Clovis or Portales area, because that is where the bulk of the population to be served lives. Some suggested locations along U.S. Route 70 between Clovis and Portales.

There was general agreement the facility should be designed and built as a new facility rather than occupy an existing building.

Ideas for what the facility should feature included space for resident patients as well as outpatients, a secure area reserved for patients brought in by law enforcement or ambulance for evaluation and early treatment, an area for juvenile patients, areas for spiritual and religious observances and space for basic medical care.

For the past year, Corbett said, Initium has been studying data about behavioral health in the region.

Collecting and processing data, he said, is quantitative, "but you can't determine feasibility based just on spreadsheets."

Friday's town hall was qualitative, he said. "We were looking for themes" in what the community needs and wants, he said.

The four groups on Friday held sessions that focused on identifying behavioral health needs of the communities, what a regional mental health facility should include, where it should be located, and how it could be funded.

Initium specialists collected lists of ideas from all of Friday's sessions and will incorporate them into the feasibility study, Corbett said. That study, the first phase, is due to be completed in April, Corbett said.

The feasibility study phase has included an analysis of gaps between what is available and what is needed, and will also include preliminary design based on needs, a financial analysis of programs and services and real estate, and interviews with behavioral health professionals, Corbett said.

The next phase, should the facility be considered feasible, would include planning and design, Corbett said, and the final step would be construction.

In a presentation to the Curry County Commission on Feb. 8, Corbett said the feasibility study covers the need for a facility, costs of land and construction, recruitment of staff and employees, operational costs, a business plan, potential grant funding, and potential income.

Initium is operating under contract with the city of Clovis through a memorandum of understanding between Clovis and Curry County, Portales, Roosevelt County, Fort Sumner, De Baca County and Quay County.

Under the contract, Initium is being paid up to $60,000 for its services.