State mental health program has offices in Clovis, Portales

Suicide is one of the top-10 leading causes of death in New Mexico, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

New Mexico had 533 suicide deaths in 2021, making it one of six states where suicide rates are highest in the country. But now, new mental health resources are available in Curry and Roosevelt counties, allowing more people to get help.

Justin Nutt operates Nurstead Mental Health, a new mental health service called a mobile crisis unit, with offices in Clovis and Portales.

Nutt said the program is part of a statewide initiative to make mental health services more readily available, especially in rural communities.

Nutt, formerly the deputy executive director of Mental Health Resources in Clovis, left his position at MHR to pursue this project.

Originally from Kansas City, Nutt has worked as a mental health consultant in many places, including El Paso after that city’s mass shooting at a Walmart in 2019. After moving to Clovis four years ago, Nutt has seen a gap in this community that needs to be filled.

“The amount of suicide here locally was, honestly, ridiculous to me,” Nutt said.

According to New Mexico’s Indicator Based Information System, as of 2020, suicide rates in New Mexico are at least 50% higher than U.S. rates over the past 20 years. Between 2016 and 2020, there were 47 suicides in Curry County and 20 in Roosevelt County, the records show.

“When we see someone who is suicidal, somebody who’s at the ER wants to get help … sometimes they sit there for six or eight hours. You know, it’s the best we have right now. I don’t downplay it at all. But if someone comes in at 8:30 p.m., they’re gonna wait until 8 o’clock in the morning … by that time, sometimes they’re so pissed, they just don’t want to talk,” he said.

Nutt said the mobile crisis unit will alleviate some of those ER visits and give people the help they seek by fielding forwarded calls from the suicide hotline (988) that come from the area or taking calls from their direct line. Then, one of the independently licensed clinicians at Nurstead will talk with that person for however long they need over the phone or make an in-person visit to determine the next best action plan.

“When they’re having a mental health issue, it’s just a matter of we can keep them from sitting there for hours and not being at the level where they’re going to be placed. And we’ll get them the referral and resources that they need,” Nutt said.

Each office in Clovis and Portales will have four to six clinicians available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Nutt said. Anyone can reach them by calling 988 or directly at 575-935-6262

Nutt said these new services could also keep mental health patients from going to jail.

“The jail, we can help them from a standpoint of ideally reducing the amount of people who are sitting in jail, not because they committed a crime, but because they had a mental health crisis,” Nutt said.

Nutt said some people incarcerated are not guilty of crimes but had mental-health issues that escalated when police were called.

Sometimes they sit in jail for months awaiting trial because they have no attorney, he said.

Nutt said law enforcement and health care workers are trained to resolve issues relatively quickly and don’t especially have the time to sit with someone for a couple of hours to understand their situation more in-depth. The mobile crisis unit will fill that gap, he said.

“Law enforcement deals with a lot of individuals that are psychotic, they do something not because it’s criminal, they do something because they don’t understand what they’re doing. Or they’re confused. You know, they’re over there knocking at that house, trying to get in, wondering why their key won’t work, and it’s literally because they lived there 20 years ago, and they’re not aware of that,” he said.

“Where someone gets angry and is yelling and screaming out of mental health issues, not criminal issues, we could be called into de-escalate. And so that would be the biggest piece of what we’re doing,” he said.

The public relations director at Roosevelt General Hospital and Clinics, Jeanette Orrantia, said the leadership at RGH welcomes any mental health services to the community.

“The leadership and clinical staff at Roosevelt General Hospital agrees any type of mental health services offered in our area would benefit the community greatly,” she said in an emailed statement.

Nutt said the ultimate goal of this service is to serve the community.

“We’re not here to make money, or anything like that. We’re here to help people in need,” he said.

Nutt said the mobile crisis services are entirely free to the individual. Follow-up services are billed to their insurance, but if they don’t have insurance, they are also free, he said.

“At present the state gives us funding to pay the clinicians. The state pays us the exact amount we are paying the clinicians, this means as a company we aren’t making anything off the mobile crisis services, but it ensures the costs are covered to allow us to provide those services at no cost to the communities in Curry and Roosevelt County,” Nutt said.

Nutt said their clinicians also provide individual therapy, peer support, comprehensive community support services, and intensive outpatient therapy for addiction and are in the process of developing other clinical programs.

“As consultants (we) provide trainings on mental health, substance use, suicide intervention, leadership, and crisis intervention. These other services allow us to provide the mobile crisis services even though there is no profit made from the mobile crisis services themselves.”

“We’re here to help people,” Nutt said.