New Mexico has spent $843.5 million since 2022 to rebuild the state’s behavioral health system, but some residents still face issues scheduling behavioral health appointments and New Mexico was one of just seven states to see an increase in overdose deaths last year, according to a new state report.
State analysts in a Legislative Finance Committee report wrote that the investments are paramount as New Mexicans, particularly youth and teenagers, report some of the poorest life outcomes in the nation. From 2024 to 2025, overdose deaths nationally fell by nearly 14%, while they rose in New Mexico by nearly 22%, the report says.
LFC analysts presented their findings alongside officials from the Administrative Office of the Courts and the state Health Care Authority’s Behavioral Health Services Division before a panel of lawmakers in Ruidoso Thursday morning.
“There are a number of concerning areas that may merit additional, really strong legislative guidance,” Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces), who chairs the interim Legislative Finance Committee, said during Thursday’s hearing. “I think across a wide range of areas, the investment is not yet matching the outcome.”
Many behavioral health providers pulled out of New Mexico more than 10 years ago after former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez accused several of fraud and froze their Medicaid payments.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2025 signed the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act, which sought to rebuild the system and established into law 13 “behavioral health regions” across the state. Leaders in each of the 13 regions are tasked with identifying the behavioral health needs in their communities and submitting plans to address those to the state. The districts have until June 30 to submit those plans.
As of Thursday, regions 1 and 2 — which represent Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties and Bernalillo County, respectively — have already submitted and finalized their plans. Five others have submitted draft plans to the state but have yet to finalize them. Two have requested extensions beyond the June 30 deadline, according to the LFC report.
While the law establishing the behavioral health regions was intended to give local leaders control over issues unique to their counties, tribes and Pueblos, by creating their own behavioral health plans, the lack of uniformity has become something of an issue, Administrative Office of the Courts Deputy Director Sarah Jacobs said at Thursday’s hearing.
“The behavioral health investment and reform act does not outline any sort of governance structure for the regions themselves, so we have a lot of varying politics at the local level,” she said.
Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences) said she was dismayed at the level of progress since passing the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act in 2025.
“I guess I was under the impression that we’d be further along than we are,” she said.
Nick Boukas, director of the Health Care Authority’s Behavioral Health Services Division, responded that regional behavioral health plans, in particular, are actually moving along on schedule.
