Medical, Dental & Mental Health Care at Eddy County Detention Center: What Families Should Know

Eddy County Detention Center states that a Registered Nurse is on duty seven days a week, including holidays. For families, that’s a useful baseline: there is nursing coverage every day of the week, not just on weekdays.

Mental health services are provided by Carlsbad Mental Health Center. If your loved one is dealing with depression, anxiety, medication needs, or a crisis, that's the organization handling their care.

Dental services are available at the facility. That said, "available" doesn't always mean immediate appointments. Encourage your loved one to request care as soon as a tooth issue starts - dental problems get worse fast.

The facility says it's seeking national accreditation through the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). For families, this signals the jail is working toward standardized health-care practices - clearer processes, quality benchmarks - rather than handling things informally.

How Families Can Use Info

• ✓ Ask your loved one to request medical, dental, or mental health care as soon as symptoms start (waiting can make treatment harder).
• ✓ Write down a simple timeline: when symptoms started, how they’ve changed, and any medications or diagnoses you know about.
• ✓ Keep copies of anything you send or receive (letters, emails, notes from phone calls) and record dates and times.
• ✓ If your loved one reports a serious or worsening issue, encourage them to keep reporting it through the facility’s normal request process and to tell staff if it’s urgent.
• ✓ If medications are involved, have your loved one share what they were prescribed before custody and any allergies or bad reactions they’ve had.
• ✓ Stay consistent and factual in communications - clear details (who, what, when) are more helpful than general complaints.