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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Gonzales

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/30/06

HB 451

SHORT TITLE Northern NM Suicide Prevention

SB

ANALYST Lewis

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

50.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to SB 75/HB 357 (Adult Suicide Prevention Resources)

Relates to Senate Bill 27 (Higher Ed Suicide & Binge-Drinking Prevention)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 451 appropriates $50,000 from the general fund to the Behavioral Health Services

Division of the Department of Health to contract for a suicide prevention project in Northern

New Mexico.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $50,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The

Department of Health (DOH), citing the DOH Epidemiology and Response Division Strate-

gic Prevention Framework Epidemiology Profile (Spring, 2005), observes that suicide is closely

House Bill 451 – Page

2

associated with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and mental health disorders. Although all New Mex-

ico suicide deaths cannot be attributed to these conditions, suicide is an indicator of the extent of

these problems. New Mexico’s suicide rate is 1.5-2 times the national rate, and has consistently

been one of the highest in the United States.

DOH further notes that suicides rates are higher among males than among females and that,

among males, American Indians have the highest rates, with the heaviest rate among American

Indian males between the ages of 25 and 44. (NM Selected Health Statistics Annual Report

2003). From the years 1999 to 2003, 1,692 New Mexicans committed suicide.

The Health Policy Commission (HPC) cites additional DOH statistics showing that in 2000 five

counties in Northern New Mexico ranked in the top 10 counties in the state for suicides per cap-

ita. These counties rank as follows:

Harding – first

Mora – second

Colfax – seventh

Rio Arriba – ninth

San Miguel - tenth

Citing the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HPC notes that the estimated

economic and social cost of completed and medically treated suicides in New Mexico was over

$200 million in 1996.

This appropriation request is not a part of the DOH executive budget, although it does relate to

the DOH Strategic plan, program area 5 Objective 3: Reduce suicide among high-risk groups.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

According to DOH additional full time employees would be required for management of pro-

grams (contract monitoring, technical assistance to the providers and evaluation of process and

outcome data). However, DOH states that, as programming would be of a behavioral health na-

ture, it is likely that the Behavioral Health Collaborative would administer the implementation of

these services.

ML/mt