NM courts name first-ever behavioral health reform expert
Administrative Office of the Courts Behavioral Health Integration and Reform Administrator Esperanza Lucero. (Courtesy photo)
The state agency that runs state courts on Monday morning named Esperanza Lucero as its first-ever behavioral health integration and reform administrator, the person tasked with implementing major parts of a new state law reforming New Mexico's behavioral health system.
New Mexico this year enacted Senate Bill 3, which is meant to rebuild the state's systems for addressing mental health challenges, including substance use disorder.
The law requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to divide the state into behavioral health regions, each of which will identify five behavioral health priorities over the next four years.
'I see the Judiciary as uniquely suited to providing the leadership to bring together local stakeholders and providers in a meaningful way,' Esperanza said in a statement.
Esperanza's first task in her new position is to assess the initiatives already underway in New Mexico under what is called Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM), Supreme Court Chief Justice David Thomson said in a statement.
SIM is a commonly used conceptual model developed in the early 2000s that outlines points of 'intercept' where people with mental health or substance use disorders can receive treatment and support.
AOC completed mapping for Santa Fe County in January; for Rio Arriba County in December; and for the Eighth Judicial District in northeastern New Mexico in October, according to reports published on its website.
A mapping workshop for the Fourth Judicial District in Mora, San Miguel and Guadalupe counties is scheduled for June 10 and 11, and a workshop for Los Alamos County is scheduled for June 23 and 24.
By June 1, the state Health Care Authority's Behavioral Health Services Division will provide AOC with behavioral health standards and service evaluation guidelines, and by the end of this year, the state's Medicaid program will establish a group of licensing boards to help streamline mental health providers' credentialing, according to a timeline presented by New Mexico's top adult mental health services official earlier this month.
Lucero previously served as director of the state Department of Health's Center for Health Protection, and led the Aging and Long-Term Services Department's Adult Protective Services Division.
'Her experience working extensively with state and local agencies to implement policy, strategies and initiatives will help in laying the groundwork for behavioral health system improvements required by state law,' AOC Director Karl W. Reifsteck said in a statement.
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