Contact: Christi Fields at (505) 604-0221, or Christi_Fields@hotmail.com.
Date: September 16, 2013
New Mexicans Fighting To
SAVE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
The real tragedy of the shutdown of New Mexico's behavioral health providers is not the questionable allegation of fraud, or the transfer of management to Arizona firms, or even the loss of many clinical jobs. The real tragedy is the plight of vulnerable people who have fallen through the cracks created by the NM Human Services Division’s decision to decimate the New Mexico providers. Many have simply dropped out and given up. This is the nature of behavioral illness: when a bond is broken between provider and client, for whatever reason, depression and paranoia often occur, followed by withdrawal.
Where to find them? How to hear their stories? How to begin the process of restoring trust? These are the underlying issues that make this disaster so real.
Representatives from the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will visit at least five of the affected New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers over the next three days to talk with staff and clients. Some clients will be visited on location as well as in their homes.
In addition, clients and families who have not been reached in these site visits are invited to a specially arranged meeting from 4-6 pm Wednesday, September 18 at the Unitarian Church on the corner of Carlisle and Comanche NE in Albuquerque. THIS MEETING IS FOR FAMILIES AND CLIENTS ONLY. For confidential reasons, no media will be admitted per CMS and SAMHSA.
Please share with others folks who have been impacted by this behavioral health crisis.
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