Advocates say teen addicts will be left on their own

Lawmakers hope to delay closure of treatment program

The state’s plan to close an adolescent treatment facility at the Turquoise Lodge Hospital next month will leave teenagers with little choice but to withdraw on their own from heroin and narcotic painkillers, limiting their chances of beating addiction, advocates told a legislative committee on Friday.

Lawmakers plan to send a letter next week to the New Mexico Department of Human Services, asking the agency to delay the closure of the 20-bed adolescent addiction treatment program at least until Sept. 23, when state officials are scheduled to discuss the closure with the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee.

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, also contends that lawmakers in 2013 earmarked an annual appropriation of $2 million for adolescent drug treatment and questioned whether the state can legally shift the money to other uses.

“I’m wondering if what we’re doing is trying to save money,” Ortiz y Pino said of the planned closure. “Our kids with addiction problems shouldn’t have to pay the price for it. Instead of shutting it down, we should make it work.”

A Department of Health spokesman said Friday that the agency intends to close the adolescent treatment program next month as announced.

“Our decision to close the unit early next month stands,” DOH spokesman Kenny Vigil said in a written response. “After an analysis of the data, and careful consideration, we made a decision to refocus our efforts on the adult population. There is a greater demand at our facility for adults.” The average age of overdose deaths in New Mexico was 44 in 2014, it said.

The average daily census at the adolescent center peaked at 7.9 patients in 2014, then declined to an average of five per day in fiscal year 2016,

which ended June 30.

Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, said he has heard complaints that teenage patients have had to wait up to eight weeks to obtain services at Turquoise Lodge.

“A system that requires a six-to-eight week delay is a system that is designed to fail,” McSorley said.

No representative of DOH was present at the hearing to respond to McSorley’s comments or concerns raised by advocates.

Advocates for young addicts told lawmakers that the medical detoxification services offered at Turquoise Lodge are an essential first step that allows teenage addicts to access long-term programs.

Residential addiction treatment programs for teenagers aren’t licensed to offer medical detoxification, and can’t accept addicts until they withdraw from opioid drugs, said Jennifer Weiss-Burke, executive director of Serenity Mesa Youth Recovery Center in Albuquerque.

“We’re scrambling to figure out where to send these kids for detox,” Weiss-Burke told legislators at a hearing in Albuquerque. Youths must be at least five days sober before they enter Serenity Mesa, which in the past relied on Turquoise Lodge to provide medical detoxification. “We’re not set up to do detox.”

Serenity Mesa turned away a 17-year-old boy on Thursday because he had not achieved the required sobriety, she said.

The Department of Health announced plans to close the Turquoise Lodge adolescent treatment program in a July 11 letter to stakeholders. DOH said the decision was based on “underutilization” of the treatment program.

Gov. Susana Martinez defended the move this week and said the $2 million cost of the adolescent program could be better used to treat adult addicts.

In its letter, DOH also listed eight centers around the state that offer “intensive outpatient services” for teenage addicts as alternatives to Turquoise Lodge.

Weiss-Burke and others told legislators that of the eight centers listed, two appear to be closed, and none of the others offers medical detoxification services for teenagers.

The Department of Health said in its written response Friday that the list “is not meant to be all encompassing, and we did our best to ensure that providers listed were still operational.”

Advocates also say that Turquoise Lodge has restricted enrollment in its adolescent treatment program in recent months, which has already caused problems for youth treatment programs who cannot accept addicts before they detox.

Chelsie McGuire, executive director at ViewPoint Rehabilitation Center in Rio Rancho, said that at least three parents have told her in recent months that they were unable to enroll their teenage daughters at Turquoise Lodge to withdraw from heroin addiction.

“These are people who are looking for a bed today,” she said. “They are dying.”