EDITORIAL: Collaboration the bottom line on mental health fix

July 06--A $325,000 report tells Bernalillo County and Albuquerque to put aside turf battles and work together on the many unmet mental health needs in the Metro area.

Let's hope key leaders in both governments take it to heart. Because now consumers are paying what amounts to an additional $20 million annual tax on goods and services for new behavioral health services.

The pricey report from Arizona-based Community Partners Inc. recommends the city, county and surrounding communities pool resources, establish a nonprofit agency to oversee spending and seek out state and federal dollars to augment the new dedicated local tax revenue, and establish a "single point of contact with accountability to the community."

That single point with accountability has been sorely lacking, as the city spends at least $14 million a year on behavioral health programs while the county runs the largest mental-health clinic in the state in the guise of the $61-million-a-year Metropolitan Detention center (although the county couldn't compile a list of its mental health programs earlier). And it's likely a portion of the $90 million in property taxes that go to University of New Mexico Hospital is used for mental health as well.

Community Partners Inc. says in the Tucson-Pima County model, about $40 million a year is spent on the "crisis continuum" including $26 million for a crisis-response center -- meaning people in crisis don't end up in jail or the emergency room by default, and there is a system for follow up when they leave. Given what's already spent and the new tax, the Metro area is close to that spending level, if not already there.

Missing are the documented positive outcomes.

County Commission Chairwoman Maggie Hart Stebbins says the city and county "have to have a partnership ... to make any progress. I believe there is a willingness to do exactly that." There needs to be, because City Councilor Brad Winter is right, that "unless we all work together, we're not going to have enough money to make a dent."

Or a commitment to ensuring some of the area's most vulnerable residents are finally getting measurable help for all those tax dollars.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.

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