Santa Fe, New Mexico – A legislative report was released Wednesday stating that when it comes to substance-abuse and mental-health services, New Mexico is failing in providing needed health services for underprivileged residents despite of the state’s repeated efforts in overhauling its government programs in the past 2 decades.
The Legislative Finance Committee reported that the state government and urgent care clinic experts already spent millions of dollars to study more about behavioral health services, sadly the suicide rate in the country continues to rise. This is also similar to the overall percentage of alcohol and drug overdose deaths.
The health services for underprivileged residents are important because recent statistics show that in New Mexico, 2 out of 10 individuals suffer from certain mental illnesses, and 1 in 10 residents experience substance-abuse problems and are in need of urgent care.
The staff of the committee that prepared the report stated that all four overhauling attempts on the country’s health services for underprivileged residents for 20 years didn’t help in improving substance-abuse treatment and mental-health services in urgent care clinics in the country.
The most recent attempt was last year when the administration’s Governor, Susana Martinez revamped the country’s Medicaid that made managed-care companies to take over in providing services for behavioral health for less fortunate residents. It was considered a big shift compared to previous steps because it was only a decade ago, the state created a system that is particularly separated for behavioral health.
The Secretary of the Human Services Deputy Brent Earnest stated that the Medicaid alteration was primarily pushed to improve the state’s medical care system and overall behavior health services for individuals with integration. This is basically for individuals asking if they can get urgent care near me even if they are poor. Brent pointed out also that the current administration also expanded Medicaid’s abilities in order to cover and help more low-income residents.
Secretary Earnest also stated that they are aiming to put their state’s current health services in a solid foundation in order to make more significant progresses in the future. The vice chairman of the Deming Democrat and committee John Arthur Smith said that it is extremely frustrating for him because all efforts virtually end up with no positive results. Smith also emphasized that previous administrations also made similar attempts in improving the health services for underprivileged residents in New Mexico. Unfortunately no significant progress were ever recorded when it comes to lowering substance-abuse and mental-health cases that continuously plague their state.
