Healthy

Home visiting has been one of New Mexico’s leading research-based strategies for improving the well-being of the state’s youngest children for more than a decade. Home visitors help families screen their children for healthy development, connect them with vital resources, and support caregivers throughout a child’s first five years. Home visiting is offered in each of New Mexico’s 33 counties, with 37 providers serving 7,280 families and 8,764 children prenatally through age 5 in FY25. Most home visiting providers use an evidence-based model, making them eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. In FY25, home visiting providers served 1,467 families through Medicaid, a significant increase from 402 families in FY24

The Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD) and ECECD support caregivers in promoting infant mental health by administering programs that strengthen caregiver-child interactions and connect caregivers to resources. The Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) program, administered by CYFD, is an evidence-based, relationship-focused therapeutic intervention for infants, young children, and their caregivers, with the primary goal of promoting and strengthening the adaptive functioning of the infant-caregiver relationship through clinical treatment while supporting permanency for the infant. In 2025, the CPP program served a total of 335 infants and 386 caregivers throughout the state. The Social and Emotional Early Development (SEED) Initiative, administered by ECECD, provides infant early childhood mental health consultation to early childhood educators and program directors, helping them become more confident, reflective, and better equipped to respond to the social and emotional needs of young children. As of February 2026, 297 classrooms, 1,062 early childhood staff, and 4,360 children have benefited from this program

In 2025, the New Mexico Legislature passed historic behavioral healthcare legislation (SB 1, 2, and 3) aimed at creating and sustaining a statewide network of behavioral health services in every community. Leading this reform is an interdisciplinary committee made up of leadership from the Health Care Authority (HCA), the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), and AOC appointees. The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) are critical partners in statewide behavioral health efforts. The CCBHCs were launched by HCA in Doña Ana, Eddy, San Juan, McKinley, Santa Fe, Bernalillo, and Sandoval counties in January 2025. CCBHC’s deliver 24/7 evidence-based comprehensive mental health and substance use disorder services to children, youth, and adults, regardless of their ability to pay. As of December 2025, CCBHCs had served approximately 6,000 Medicaid members, including 1,658 youth aged 0-21.

School-based health centers, which function as a partnership between the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH), Office of School and Adolescent Health (OSAH), and Managed Care Organizations, are another crucial behavioral health initiative. After expanding access to services in 2024, school-based health centers served more than 16,000 patients in the 2023-2024 school year, helping to support the physical and mental well-being of students. Additionally, through its Children’s Behavioral Health Services, CYFD oversees the development and implementation of New Mexico’s children’s behavioral health service array, including prevention, early intervention, and treatment services, as well as infant and early childhood mental health programming, community-based supports, and workforce development efforts to strengthen trauma-responsive care.

Increased access to behavioral health programs has made a positive impact on young people statewide. In 2024, the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resilience Survey (YRRS) showed marked improvements in youth mental health after trending negatively for eight consecutive years. Young people also reported being less likely to consume drugs or alcohol: the YRRS showed that young people were 40 percent less likely to consume alcohol than in 2019 and 37 percent less likely to consume cannabis. 

Numerous agencies work together to coordinate care and services for substance-exposed infants and their families. In 2025, DOH, HCA, ECECD and CYFD collaborated to holistically support 1,800 substance-exposed newborns and their families who received a Plan of Safe Care (POSC, also known as a CARA plan). This program has grown to accommodate the need in New Mexico through offering intensive case management to all families with a POSC, following the child through their first year of life. As a result, DOH provided navigation services to 1,608 babies and their families in FY25.

The expansion of home visiting, doula, and midwifery programs throughout the state have allowed more pregnant people to access prenatal and postnatal care. In 2025, funding from the Rural Health Care Delivery fund helped expand maternal and child health services in rural communities, including Cibola, Grant, Luna and McKinley Counties. Following the passage of HB214 in the 2025 legislative session, the NMDOH Maternal Health Program created a doula certification program; as of December 2025, 48 doulas have received their certification, making them eligible to bill Medicaid for their services. Midwives follow a similar reimbursement process. In 2025 New Mexico also passed HB56, “Medicaid Reimbursements for Birth Centers,” a law which mandates pay parity between birthing hospitals and freestanding birth centers. This entitles birth workers to equal compensation regardless of where they practice. Additionally, Medicaid covers all postpartum individuals for a full year following birth, which maximizes the opportunity to access postpartum healthcare.