Episode 131: Behavioral Health in New Mexico
We barely had time to even scratch the surface on this week's show. Behavioral health encompasses so many health issues that we could spend a whole year dedicated to the topic. Our goal is to definitely take the issue up again in the future, but next time we will take smaller chunks that allow us to dig a little deeper into the subissues surrounding behavioral health in New Mexico.
Here is the overview, though, in case it wasn't clear in the show. Like other health issues, we have a long way to go in our state. According to Mental Health America, our state ranks 49th in suicides per capita, and 36th in depression rates. There are also an estimated 400,000+ New Mexicans that are dealing with substance abuse or mental health disorders on a daily basis.
There are many explanations for those statistics, and they are the usual suspects. First, it is hard to get resources and services out to every corner of our vast state. Funding is another big issue, which we also touched on during the show. State leaders are working hard to buck some of these trends, but it is a long, uphill road that will takes years, if not decades to fix. The Human Services Department has a list of goals for improving behavioral health care in our state. That list is:
1) Reduce suicides
2) Improve access and quality of mental health and substance abuse treatments
3) Provide enhanced services for high need and high risk individuals
4) Increased rural, frontier, and border access to behavioral health issues
All important goals for sure. It seems to me one of the other big keys to dealing with behavioral health issues is really through a teamwork approach. That message was definitely echoed by our panel this week. Solving these problems is never about choosing one program over another. We need all the help we can get. It truly does take a community to solve these critical problems, and luckily there is a lot of that collaboration starting to form in this state. Probably the best example of that is the Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative and the Consortium for Behavioral Health Training and Research. There is also a lot of exciting developments right now in the area of telepsychiatry. We hope to feature these programs in greater depth during later episodes of NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS.
Another big key to dealing with behavioral health, it seems to me, is battling the stereotypes that go along with many of mental health afflictions. That is why we wanted to start the discussion by looking at the Healthcare for the Homeless group's Art Street program. Programs like this one really help to empower people, while also destroying those stereotypes that other people may have, not only of mental health patients, but also homeless people. In the interview that aired on the show Tina Carlson mentioned that mental health and homelessness often go hand in hand. We, as a community, have to be willing to embrace these people and provide oppoortunities like Arts Street if we are ever really going to address the state of behavioral health in New Mexico.
We also spent some time with Tina talking about the issue of homeless teens in Albuquerque, and how Health Care for the Homeless helps those folks. It's an important conversation as well, but one we just didn't have time for in the show. Not to worry, though, you can watch the video by clicking on this link.
Here is the overview, though, in case it wasn't clear in the show. Like other health issues, we have a long way to go in our state. According to Mental Health America, our state ranks 49th in suicides per capita, and 36th in depression rates. There are also an estimated 400,000+ New Mexicans that are dealing with substance abuse or mental health disorders on a daily basis.
There are many explanations for those statistics, and they are the usual suspects. First, it is hard to get resources and services out to every corner of our vast state. Funding is another big issue, which we also touched on during the show. State leaders are working hard to buck some of these trends, but it is a long, uphill road that will takes years, if not decades to fix. The Human Services Department has a list of goals for improving behavioral health care in our state. That list is:
1) Reduce suicides
2) Improve access and quality of mental health and substance abuse treatments
3) Provide enhanced services for high need and high risk individuals
4) Increased rural, frontier, and border access to behavioral health issues
All important goals for sure. It seems to me one of the other big keys to dealing with behavioral health issues is really through a teamwork approach. That message was definitely echoed by our panel this week. Solving these problems is never about choosing one program over another. We need all the help we can get. It truly does take a community to solve these critical problems, and luckily there is a lot of that collaboration starting to form in this state. Probably the best example of that is the Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative and the Consortium for Behavioral Health Training and Research. There is also a lot of exciting developments right now in the area of telepsychiatry. We hope to feature these programs in greater depth during later episodes of NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS.
Another big key to dealing with behavioral health, it seems to me, is battling the stereotypes that go along with many of mental health afflictions. That is why we wanted to start the discussion by looking at the Healthcare for the Homeless group's Art Street program. Programs like this one really help to empower people, while also destroying those stereotypes that other people may have, not only of mental health patients, but also homeless people. In the interview that aired on the show Tina Carlson mentioned that mental health and homelessness often go hand in hand. We, as a community, have to be willing to embrace these people and provide oppoortunities like Arts Street if we are ever really going to address the state of behavioral health in New Mexico.
We also spent some time with Tina talking about the issue of homeless teens in Albuquerque, and how Health Care for the Homeless helps those folks. It's an important conversation as well, but one we just didn't have time for in the show. Not to worry, though, you can watch the video by clicking on this link.
Labels: Albuquerque, Behavioral Health, KNME
posted by Kevin McDonald at
11:22 AM
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