Health facility location still under consideration

A gathering of representatives from five New Mexico counties came “closer to consensus” Wednesday on where to locate a 48-bed regional behavioral health facility but reached no decision, according to James Corbett, a principal with Initium Health, the Colorado “public benefit corporation” that is coordinating efforts to establish the mental health facility.

A public benefit corporation is a “relatively new corporate designation” that “ allows benefit to be a charter purpose of an organization and differentiates it from a traditional for-profit organization,” according to Initium Health’s website.

The city and county officials seemed to reach consensus on three points about a possible location, Corbett said. One was that the facility should be “close to nature;” another, that the facility be far enough from other facilities to allow privacy; and the third, that the facility be located close to the Plains Regional Medical Center

The assembly also discussed whether the facility should be housed in an existing building or in a new structure, Corbett said.

With that question in mind, a tour of Clovis’ HOPE Children’s Home was a part of the agenda. Discussion followed about the cost of adapting a facility like the HOPE building to accommodate the needs of a behavioral health facility versus the cost of starting from scratch, Corbett said.

The session attracted representatives from Curry, Roosevelt, Quay, DeBaca and Union counties, along with the cities of Clovis, Fort Sumner and Portales, Corbett said.

Corbett said he is heartened to note that the New Mexico Legislature allocated $10 million to the project in its 2023 session.

“We will continue to seek out other sources of funding,” Corbett said.

In its Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan, which serves as the basis for capital outlay funding requests from the legislature, the Curry County Commission is seeking $45 million for the facility, which is currently estimated at 65,000 square feet.

Corbett said he was also impressed with the unity of agreement on the need for a behavioral health facility to serve the five-county region and the “growth in knowledge” on behavioral health needs that he has seen since he became involved with the project.

Corbett and Initium have been studying the feasibility of the regional facility since January 2022, he said, under a contract with the city of Clovis as the lead agency for $60,000.