Legislation calls for $1.3M to support Las Vegas treatment center

SANTA FE, N.M. — Northern New Mexico is working to fight the opioid epidemic by building a new in-patient residential treatment center in Las Vegas. Advocates are asking for the state’s help to build out other layers of support, prevention, workforce development and services.

House Bill 29 is calling for $1.3 million to support that project. Those funds would reportedly come from the consumer settlement funds from the attorney general’s office.

“We sat around the table and said, ‘We need to do better for recovery services for our people,'” said Matthew Probst, the medical director of El Centro Family Health.

The brand new in-patient center in Las Vegas is a regional facility that’s been years in the making, taking over an abandoned state building.

“If we can keep them home and take care of them at home, instead of them having to leave the region – sometimes even the state for out-patient services – they do better in their own community, in their own surroundings,” Probst said.

Probst is working with San Miguel County Commissioner Harold Garcia and state Rep. Miguel Garcia to tap the state attorney general’s opioid settlement funds for more money to support the project, to tackle other aspects of care.

The bill passed the House and Human Services Committee Monday morning. At the same time, Garcia said they are in the process of issuing an RFP to get construction going.

Track HB 29 during the legislative session.