[Editor's Note: The Grant County Commission held a work session on Dec. 12, 2023. This part 2 continues with presentations.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The second presentation of the Dec. 12, 2023 work session came from Dr. Teresa Arizaga, Hidalgo Medical Services chief mental health officer. She added data from the Tu Casa, HMS mental health clinic. She said the previous month, they had seen 321 unique patients with 433 completed patient visits. The MAT (medication-assisted treatment) visits, she said were showing a bit lower in the data.

"We are still working with the IT Department to fully capture all the data of all the visits, because they are not all being capture," she continued. "We right now now have seven MAT prescribers, but the timing is not always with what our patients need. So we're using one of our same-day providers at Tranquil Skies, who also prescribes suboxone and others we use with the MAT program. Those encounters are not being adequately captured."

She noted that the Tu Casa program has graduates every month. The director does a great job of celebrating successes. "We're starting a new group for fathers, and for single parents."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce said he receives a lot of calls from people "who are really happy with what you're doing. I hear lots of compliments on your work and everything you do for this community on the behavioral health issue."

"I'm blessed to be in this community," Arizaga replied. "With all the help from HMS and we're becoming even more integrated with our dental department, it takes everyone, so thank you."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne said the graphs at the end of her report seem to "show that we are meeting the need for the MAT program pretty well. It seems like good news that we are seeing fewer patients and having fewer MAT encounters. Am I missing something?"

Arizaga said the need is still very much there. "In the next coming months, we will see actually higher numbers, both because we will have a couple more providers for MAT services coming on board and then just capturing those encounters that aren't on the graphs."

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards asked last month about the number of devices that HMS is using. "In the past year, I was surprised that we had issued only 21 devices and 11 of those were to people older than 50 years," Arizaga said. "I know we continue to have connectivity issues, with a lot of our patients, not just our elderly ones. We continue to offer with our psychiatric patients telephonic services. We are trying to switch over to video with all our patients, and we are finding that there are still some people who do not have internet. We are accommodating those patients, if it's clinically appropriate through telephonic visits."

Edwards said she had a follow-up question."Do community health workers accompany those devices at all or do you just hand them off?"

Arizaga said community health workers do teach the person how to use the devices. "Right now, our community health workers do not go to the homes. Those patients who do have care coordinators get help from them at their homes."

Edwards asked what the difference was between a community health worker and a care coordinator.

Arizaga said there is a lot of overlap, but care coordinators coordinate care with other specialties, whether they are from HMS or outside HMS. They also work with health insurance companies to make sure the person is being assessed for personal care service need in their home. Community health workers can help with other needs such as food insecurity or getting help with utilities. She said if a primary care provider sees the need for the person to have assistance they might bring in a community health worker or make an appointment with one so that proper paperwork can be completed.

Susie Trujillo, Tu Casa Advisory Board member, said: 'Yes, Dr. Arizaga is a gem for our community, with her gentleness in dealing with patients. "I think the Tu Casa advisory board is the only one in the state with two psychiatrists as members. I'm here to thank you personally and on behalf of the advisory board. The county's commitment to the community is amazing. It shows such leadership, and I just want to thank every one of you. I've had many conversations with Commissioner Edwards and Chair Ponce, your leadership for these projects has been wonderful. And lastly, Miss Charlene (Webb, county manager), your knowledge is incredible and you, too, are a gentle giant. You really are making a difference out there for those who struggle with addiction. Your striving to create more new and impactful programs certainly impacts the families. I would like to speak to (District 2 )Commissioner (Eloy) Medina's question about if there was anything else we could do. I remember at the recent Farmington presentation that the DWI program is funded from two sources, taxes and by fines. Trying to break into getting those funds, I seriously cannot figure that out. There are certain counties in our state that do get those monies for detox services. For our community, you have to travel at least 120 miles, if you can even find a bed for detox. We're talking social and medical detox. Farmington has a center that is heavily funded by those monies. I wish there were some way we can break into those funds. And I'm sorry, this will likely fall on you, Charlene. I think we should find out how we break into those pots of money. It goes to Bernalillo County and others, and the state doesn't want to hear anything else. If we could break into it the community would be very grateful. Again thank you on behalf of Tu Casa and the advisory board. We are looked at statewide as leaders in the behavioral health field."

To read the prior article, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81832-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-121223-part-1