REQUESTING THE GOVERNOR AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO ENDORSE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PUBLICLY FUNDED RESIDENTIAL MENTAL HEALTH CARE CENTER IN SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO FOR SECURE TREATMENT OF CHRONICALLY ILL PATIENTS IN NEED OF SHORT- AND LONG-TERM CARE, AS DETERMINED BY THE DISTRICT COURTS OF NEW MEXICO.

WHEREAS, the state's only publicly funded mental health care facility is located in San Miguel county and is usually filled to capacity; and

WHEREAS, forensic patients in southern New Mexico are often incarcerated in jail for months without treatment before being admitted to the facility, and local resources to care for forensic detainees with severe mental illnesses are lacking; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement and medical transportation personnel must drive hundreds of miles with patients in restraints to deliver patients to Las Vegas; and

WHEREAS, families of the mentally ill must also drive long distances and incur onerous travel and lodging expenses to visit family members whose treatment requires family participation vital to the patient's stabilization and recovery; and

WHEREAS, the second largest population area in the state lacks a public facility for the treatment of the severely mentally ill that without proper residential treatment are in many instances a danger to themselves and others; and

WHEREAS, there is a great and immediate need for a public mental health center to be established in southern New Mexico that is readily accessible to the courts, patients and their families;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the governor and the department of health be requested to develop a plan for the establishment in southern New Mexico of a secure residential mental health center for long- and short-term court-ordered treatment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the plan and necessary funding for the construction, purchase or lease of a facility be presented to the second session of the forty-fifth legislature; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the governor and the secretary of health.