LCFD mental health crisis team could get $3 million

An appropriation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., would allocate $3 million to the Las Cruces Fire Department to build and furnish a “response station” to house the Las Cruces Fire Department’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare program and its Project LIGHT (Lessen the Incidence of Grief, Harm and Trauma).

The station is one of 12 projects Heinrich included in the Senate Transportation and Housing Appropriations bill, which passed the Senate Appropriations Committee with a vote of 29-0 in late July.

Fire Chief Jason Smith said LCFD is looking at multiple locations for the response station if final funding is approved, including the former Fire Station No. 3 building on Valley Drive; Fire Station No. 8, 550 N. Sonoma Ranch Blvd.; and the yet-to-be-built Fire Station No. 9, which, like Station 8, will be located on the East Mesa.

LCFD began Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) in 2016. It launched Project LIGHT March 6 to add mental crisis intervention services to MIH. To date, Project LIGHT has received 378 calls for service, LCFD Battalion Chief Matthew Hiles told the city council at its July 24 work session.

Project LIGHT’s two response teams, which include social workers and emergency medical technicians, have had 141 patient contacts and interventions. Hiles said. Almost half were for psychological issues and about six percent were medical issues. 40 percent involved multiple issues.

In nearly half of Project LIGHT dispositions, the person involved was transported to a mental health provider, which Hiles said included FYI+, the County Triage Center and Peak Behavioral Health in Santa Teresa. About 18 percent of calls resulted in treatment and resolution on scene, 13 percent resulted in EMS transport and 20 percent were handled by law enforcement officers, Hiles said.

LCPD has requested Project LIGHT teams 103 times, Hiles said.

“The LIGHT teams have been a resounding success,” Acting Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story said. “They have enabled the police department to focus on safety while the mental health professionals focus on providing the best care possible and plugging people into the resources they need.”

The police department “does a really good job of just kind of hanging back,” said FYI+ Senior Clinical Director Lisa Chavez, who provides clinical supervision to LCFD social workers. Police officers have also been “supportive to step in” when they are needed, Chavez said.

“We are bridging that gap from scene to proper source,” Hiles said, with those individuals Project LIGHT teams are responding to getting the treatment they need.

“This is great and deserves a standing ovation,” Councilor Becki Graham said.

LCFD said its goal by July 1, 2024, is to respond to 90 percent of all mental health crisis calls in the city.