The Las Cruces Bulletin: Mobile crisis unit looks to the future after debut year

The Project LIGHT teams in Las Cruces are transported in labeled SUVs. (Courtesy photo by City of Las Cruces)

LAS CRUCES — Project LIGHT wears its mission in its name.

The acronym LIGHT stands for “Lessen the Incidence of Grief, Harm and Trauma.” The title belongs to a unique Las Cruces Fire Department team of paramedics and licensed social workers who respond to people in a mental health crisis.

The project launched on March 6, 2023, to reduce the frequency of grief, harm and trauma in Las Cruces. In year one, city officials feel it has achieved that goal.

“We’re pretty happy with the way it’s going,” City Manager Ifo Pili said in an interview with the Las Cruces Bulletin. “But we’re going to have to wait to see how we can improve over the next few months.”

The year saw Project LIGHT receive news coverage, much of it local, but some extending all the way to the United Kingdom in an article published in The Guardian and written by Searchlight New Mexico. The team also responded to 940 calls in its first year – an average of about three calls per day.

According to data from the LCFD, about half the calls were strictly mental health related. About 40 percent required multiple interventions such as mental health and medical. Most calls ended with transportation to a mental health provider or the patient receiving treatment on-scene.

“The LIGHT teams have been a resounding success,” Las Cruces Police Department Chief Jeremy Story said during a city council presentation in August 2023. “They’ve enabled the police department to focus on safety while the mental health professionals focus on providing the best care possible and plugging people into resources they need.”

Now, Project LIGHT looks to the future.

Matthew Hiles, a battalion chief with LCFD who oversees Project LIGHT and the department’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program, said Project LIGHT has two goals for the future.  

First, build a place for Project LIGHT to call home. The Project LIGHT teams operate out of Fire Station 1, the main headquarters on Picacho Avenue across from the Thomas Brannigan Memorial Library.

“To be honest, we’re housed over here at station one and things are actually they’re just really tight,” Hiles said.

As of now, Hiles said, the plan is to demolish the old Fire Station 3 located on Valley Drive near the W. Hadley Avenue intersection. The building was made obsolete after the city completed the new Fire Station 3 right next door as part of a 2018 GO Bond project.

Hiles said a new building for Project LIGHT and the Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program would improve outcomes.

“It’s also going to give some space for our teams to have a moment and decompress,” Hiles said. “Right now, there’s really nowhere to do that.”

The second goal involves filling that new space with more employees.

Under its current setup, Project LIGHT has five employees. The team members include licensed masters’ in social work Allison Stoner and Mendy Fowler, paramedics Myke Torres and Korina Jimenez and case manager Wes Smith. The group breaks into two teams covering different parts of the day.

But that means if the team is out and a second call comes in, there’s currently no way to respond to it. It also means that the absence of a team member stifles Project LIGHT: “When one person is out, the whole team is out,” Hiles said.

Matthew Hiles, a battalion chief with LCFD who oversees Project LIGHT and the department’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program, is seen during a presentation to city council on July 24, 2023. (City of Las Cruces video)

Growing the team will require more money. Currently, Project LIGHT is funded by the city of Las Cruces through the LCFD’s budget, although the program has been the subject of federal grants. Project LIGHT has been awarded about $1 million, Hiles said, but Project LIGHT hasn’t received that money.

“So definitely adding personnel down the road is going to be beneficial for the public,” Hiles said.

But one thing Hiles said will stay the same in the future is the use of the model.

Las Cruces is one of many cities in America to implement a non-police crisis intervention team. But some other cities rely on a “crisis now” model of care.

The Crisis Now model works like this: A person experiencing a crisis or a person adjacent to a crisis will call the crisis team directly, or their call will be routed via 988. Then a team like Project LIGHT will arrive on the scene and treat or transport the person. Typically, there are no police or other traditional first responders at the scene.

That’s not how Las Cruces’ Project LIGHT works. Instead, Project LIGHT operates alongside a cadre of first responders. When someone calls 911 with a crisis, it’s up to the 911 dispatcher to call on Project LIGHT or the police officer responsible for securing the scene to request Project LIGHT’s presence. This practice falls under the category of the co-responder model.

The major criticism of the co-responder model involves incarceration. Because police officers participate in the response, many outcomes can lead to someone experiencing a crisis ending up in jail. In Las Cruces’ case, about 20 percent of Project LIGHT’s interactions end with the person being jailed, according to statistics presented in July 2023.

Hiles said he understands the criticism but feels that LCPD officers effectively use the teams at the correct times to ensure good outcomes.

“It’s helping them out tremendously with de-escalating situations that maybe could have gotten a little out of hand,” Hiles said. “They’re also requesting the LIGHT teams preemptively, even sometimes before they get them on the scene.”