125 Years of service
For 125 years, Las Vegas has been home to the state’s only public psychiatric health hospital.
In that time, New Mexicans have known it by several names, including the New Mexico Insane Asylum, the Territorial Insane Asylum, or simply, the New Mexico State Hospital.
But as society’s view of mental health evolved, so did the institution’s name. Today, the hospital is known as the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute.
This past May marked the 125th anniversary of NMBHI’s public opening, and today, NMBHI consists of five divisions: the Adult Psychiatric Division, the Forensic Division, the Long Term Care Services Division, the Center for Adolescent Relationship Exploration and its Community Based Services.
According to Executive Director Frances Tweed, NMBHI has 355 operational beds. Ninety six of those beds are in the Adult Psychiatric Division, which receives patients from throughout the state, according to Tweed.
“They can come in on a court order,” Tweed said. “They can come in on a seven-day emergency statement, which can be written by any doctor, psychologist, or even a social worker in an outpatient mental health clinic. If they’re sent on a court order, then that’s an automatic admission. But if somebody sends them for an emergency evaluation, it’s not a guarantee that we’re going to admit them. One of our psychiatrists or psychologists will evaluate them.”
The Forensic Division has 84 licensed beds, and it only accepts patients on a court order.
“It has to be a felony charge, and the question of their competence has to arise,” Tweed said. “If there is a question on whether or not they’re competent to stand trial, that’s when they send them here to treat them to competence.”
While the Forensic Division is a locked unit, according to Tweed, the setting is just like any other hospital.
“They come from a prison setting, or a jail setting, and they walk through the doors and become patients,” Tweed said. “They’re treated like any of our other patients.”
The Long Term Care Services Division currently has 163 operational beds, Tweed said. And NMBHI already has the licensing in place to fill beds in the final phase of the new nursing home, once construction on it is completed.
The Center for Adolescent Relationship Exploration has 20 beds for male adolescents.
“These are young men who have exhibited sexually harmful behavior,” Tweed said. “And most of the time, it’s because they have been sexually abused, and physically abused. They’ve really experienced some real trauma. What we’re doing is trying to break that cycle so they don’t become adult sex offenders.”
Through an arrangement with West Las Vegas Schools, those in the CARE division are visited by a teacher all week long, and keep to the same class schedule as other West Las Vegas Schools.
The Community Based Services division is NMBHI’s outpatient program. It serves San Miguel, Mora and Guadalupe counties.
“Our main office is here in Las Vegas,” Tweed said. “We have a satellite office in Mora, one in Pecos and one in Santa Rosa. Currently, we’re servicing about 1,100 outpatients.”
To mark NMBHI’s 125th anniversary, this past May, patients and staff members celebrated with games of basketball, volleyball and horse shoes, as well as with music and dancing — activities that have been part of staff and patient lives for many years.
NMBHI also hosted an employee appreciation event where historic photos and articles were on display in the administration lobby for staff to view.
The observance also coincided with Mental Health Month.
Since this year’s theme was “Fitness #4Mind4Body,” NMBHI administrators invited employees to go on a memorial walk around the campus to remember five employees who recently passed away, including former Executive Director Dr. Troy Jones.
“We loved him,” Tweed said. “He was our administrator for many, many years. He worked here for 18 years, had left in April of 2016, and had opted to come back home — he went to Highlands here, this was his home. That’s when he discovered he had cancer. Within six months, he died. It was a big loss for all of us.”
Others honored at the memorial walk were the late Judanna Duran-Ortega, Dr. Nathaniel Hurwitz, Paul Mares and Julie Coca-Rogers.
As it begins its 126th year, NMBHI has several staffing vacancies to fill, including about 20 nurses and close to 100 psych techs, or nursing aides. Tweed said her staff has been working with high schools to help fill those positions.
“Not everybody goes to college, so this is a great career for people who just want to work,” she said. “If you think about it, right out of high school you get a job for the state, and in 30 years, you’re retired.”
This Friday, representatives from NMBHI will be at the job fair held at Luna Community College. Tweed hopes to fill some of those vacancies.
“We’re going to hire people right on the spot,” she said. “We’re going to do a rapid hire at that event. The last rapid hire we had last month, I think we hired 16 techs, and we were able to hire three nurses.”
According to Tweed, in July, all state employees received a 2 percent increase in their salaries. This August, in an effort to recruit and retain psych techs, they received a 10 percent raise. Therapists received an additional 2.5 percent raise.
Tweed also said the entire nursing staff recently received raises as well, which has helped NMBHI fill some of its nursing vacancies.
The amounts of the nursing raises varied, and though she did not have exact numbers, Tweed said some received raises of as much as 25 percent.
“All the nurses got a nice raise, and they’re all happy,” she said. “It was well deserved. The nurses are really our backbone because they’re here 24-7. It’s been a very positive thing.”