Court in Bernalillo County to revive mental health treatment program

SANTA FE — Court officials in Bernalillo County plan to revive an outpatient treatment program for people with severe mental illness with $900,000 in funding provided by the city of Albuquerque, officials told lawmakers on Wednesday.

The goal of the program, called Assisted Outpatient Therapy, or AOT, is to provide mental health therapy and other services under the supervision of a judge, city and court officials told members of an interim legislative committee.

Assisted Outpatient Therapy is overseen by a civil court judge and is separate from the criminal court, Laura Braun, the court’s program manager, told members of the Court, Corrections and Justice Committee.

“One of the main goals of AOT is keeping individuals out of the criminal justice system,” Braun said.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham plans to call lawmakers into a special session next month to consider several public-safety measures, including one intended to expand AOT programs statewide.

The measure is intended to strengthen a 2016 law that allows district judges to order involuntary treatment for people with severe mental illness who have frequent brushes with law enforcement.

Albuquerque officials budgeted $900,000 this year to pay for the program, according to Gilbert Ramirez, the city’s director of Health, Housing and Homelessness.

Officials expect to begin enrollment in August or September and serve about 40 people in its first full year.

The city plans to contract with First Nations Community HealthSource to provide clinical services for the program, Ramirez said.

First Nations will bill Medicaid for clinical services, and city funding will pay additional costs for court personnel and attorneys involved in the civil litigation.

Albuquerque’s first attempt to create an AOT program ended in 2021 when the city withdrew its contract with a medical services provider.

The city reached a four-year contract with HopeWorks in August 2019 to provide clinical services for the AOT program. However, the city terminated the contract in June 2021 after the city’s Office of the Inspector General determined that HopeWorks owed the city $155,586 for allegedly double-billing the city and Medicaid, the Journal reported at the time.

HopeWorks subsequently reimbursed the city, Ramirez said Wednesday.

Second Judicial District Judge Beatrice Brickhouse, who served as the civil judge for the AOT program from 2019 to 2021, said she typically held four hearings for each participant over a period of a year.

Brickhouse said she explained to each participant that their obligations were spelled out in a court order.

“I let them know what the expectations are with regard to their participation and the fact that the service provider also has obligations under the court order,” she said.

Participants are required to stay in contact with a case manager and cooperate with their treatment, including taking prescribed medications, she said.