This year, the city of Las Cruces is planning on launching Project L.I.G.H.T., a crisis intervention unit that will respond to individuals in the midst of a mental health crisis. It will be a part of the fire department’s Mobile Integrated Health Unit (M.I.H.), and the city is expected to receive over $1 million in federal funds for the project.
Jason Smith is the Chief of the Las Cruces Fire Department. He said that implementing project L.I.G.H.T. is important for the evolution of the fire department and the needs of the Las Cruces community.
“In our country right now, when it comes to mental health crisis and even just supporting our responders, it’s just really been exacerbated over the last couple of years going into the pandemic. [It] really showed that our system has areas where it can improve,” he said. “It’s very encouraging that we have senators and people at the highest levels of the federal government looking at this and making it a priority, as well as our local level. We have our local city councilors who have made this a priority and are putting resources toward it. With that being said, more resources for first responders, for fire departments across the country is going to be needed.”
U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan visited with the Las Cruces fire department recently to hear about their plans for implementing project L.I.G.H.T. He said that he takes pride in working to support emergency service initiatives across the state.
“The more work that we can all participate in to strengthen access to mental and behavioral health services and providers is critically important,” he said. “The more services like that that can exist for families across New Mexico, the more lives that will be saved.”
Johana Bencomo, Las Cruces City Councilor for District 4, says that the goal of Project L.I.G.H.T. is to add personnel to the fire department that understand how to de-escalate and treat mental health crises.
“I really believe, and the crisis intervention model believes that you send the appropriate first responder. The person who has training in dealing with those situations like, for example, social workers and EMTs. They’re now going to be housed under the fire department and will work collaboratively with the police department and 9-1-1 dispatch in order to, like I said, get the right first responder to the right emergency.”
While project L.I.G.H.T. personnel will respond to 9-1-1 emergencies, Councilor Bencomo says she hopes to implement additional mental-health measures that raise the quality of life for everyone in Las Cruces.
“What I keep hearing from both fire and PD, and even some of our nonprofit partners, is that we are just significantly lacking in long-term mental health treatment services in the region, not just Las Cruces. So to me that’s logically the next step is that we start advocating at the statewide level for us to be able to get treatment facilities that will hold people for much longer than the ER would hold them, than the triage center would hold them. Because it is so desperately needed, that folks who are living with mental illness … that are probably living with substance abuse, and may also be homeless, those are the most vulnerable people in our community. And I know there are a lot of us coming together to figure some of those pieces out.”
Smith said that it’s encouraging that the fire department is getting recognition for the efforts of programs like the Mobile Integrated Health Unit and others.
“We’ve got a lot of hard working individuals across our department. This recognition specifically for MIH really does boost morale. They can see that, not only are they having results with their patients and their clients, [but] they are also getting recognition at a very high level.”
Smith said that hiring for the project is complete, and they hope to begin utilizing Project L.I.G.H.T. by March.
