News and Articles

SANTA FE, NM, March 6, 2026—Santa Fe County is taking an important step forward with the recent purchase of 2935 Rodeo Park Drive East, bringing the vision of a Youth Behavioral Health Center closer to reality and expanding opportunities for young people.

The approximately 35,000-square-foot building has room to house multiple providers and services under one roof. The concept is to encourage provider coordination and make care more accessible for youth in need.

This initiative helps fulfill multiple action items from a December 2025 review of behavioral health priorities for the State’s First Behavioral Health Region as part of the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act. The Act requires local organizations, healthcare agencies, and government officials to work together to support the expansion of behavioral health services in New Mexico. The Health Center will expand core services, provide privacy spaces where youth can seek services, and provide same day, immediate and walk-in services, and more.

The County will soon issue Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to bring in youth-focused providers and services for the new space. County planners envision a mix of individual and group therapy, grief support, crisis response, psychiatric care, suicide prevention, as well as behavioral health supports identified by youth, families, and providers. Adjunct services will include primary care screening, tutoring, workforce readiness, and a youth drop-in space.

Information regarding the RFP process, eligibility requirements, and submission deadlines will be available in the coming weeks on the County’s official website.

There’s a lot of momentum helping the project move forward thanks to the State’s commitment to reform behavioral healthcare statewide, and most recently from Santa Fe County’s, Senator Linda M. Trujillo, District 24, who has authorized a request for just under $2.07 million to be approved for building improvements.

The reauthorization would fund a reroof, energy efficient insulation upgrades and other envelope improvements, and retrofit the space according to the specific needs of tenants and service providers.

As the pieces come together, the collaborators at the Youth Behavioral Health Center will begin the earnest work of creating meaningful change for New Mexico’s youth, who currently face daunting statistics, like the following:

30% of high school students report persistent sadness or hopelessness

20% of middle school and 19% of high school students experience frequent mental distress

23% of middle school and 9% of high school students have seriously considered suicide

Santa Fe County Youth and Family Services Division Manager Chanelle Delgado is one of the planners helping to develop the project. A longtime youth advocate and creative problem-solver, Delgado has been advancing youth programs in the County since 2014, starting with what is now the Uplift Youth program. Inspired by her work, she pursued a Master of Social Work to become a licensed clinician, completing her practicum at La Sala Center, a crisis triage hub that integrates multiple adult services in one location. Her experience there sparked innovative ideas for delivering comprehensive, coordinated services tailored to the needs of youth in the County.

“Working with La Sala and the adult population, I saw how the absence of preventative supports during youth can lead to challenges later in life. That experience inspired ideas for how we, as a County, can create stronger systems to help young people thrive,” Delgado reflected.

To design a Youth Behavioral Health Center, Delgado knew the County would need to implement intensive data collection to ensure available services were evidence-based, met real needs, and reflected best practices.

In 2024, the County began a gaps analysis to pinpoint where youth services are most needed. Concurrently, Delgado worked with stakeholders to understand the flow of youth behavioral health cases in emergency rooms.

She learned that youth emergency department visits for mental health doubled nationally between 2011 and 2021, and that suicide-related visits increased fivefold in that same time. The implications weighed heavily—that intervention is not happening early enough for our youth, and coordinated support is urgently needed.

Even basic counseling services are inaccessible to 52% of Santa Fe County residents who need them, primarily due to long waitlists and limited provider availability.

As Delgado pursued her work, awareness was growing across the state about the rising rates of unhoused populations and unmet behavioral health needs, and if these issues were left untreated, what would things look like for the people of New Mexico in 15-20 years?

With growing regional commitment to addressing these challenges, a sense of hope and possibility is emerging.

“I’m blown away and deeply proud of how quickly Santa Fe County has mobilized to advance the regional Youth Behavioral Health Center, and how this work is now reinforced by statewide initiatives. It sends a powerful message to our young people: your mental health and well-being matter,” Delgado said.

Santa Fe County anticipates a phased opening of the Regional Youth Behavioral Health Center, with a tentative soft opening in 2026 and fully operational in 2027.

####