NM remains woefully lacking in adequate mental health care
Mental health disorders cross political stripes and beliefs of all kind. According to the 2017 State of Mental Health in America, 40 million Americans will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime.
Of that population, 1.2 million individuals living with mental illness sit in jails and prisons each year. Mental health conditions affect all of us, our friends, family members and our communities.
When we don’t support people with behavioral/ mental health issues, we pay heavily, whether in health care, workforce, quality of life or actual lives lost. Untreated mental illnesses in the U.S. cost more than $100 billion a year in lost productivity, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Untreated mental illness impacts our hospitals and clinics, our schools, our courts and jails. It is also well known that untreated mental illness along with alcohol and drug addiction are major contributors to homelessness.
More Americans now have access to mental health services as a result of the Affordable Care Act. However, 19 percent remain uninsured in states that did not expand Medicaid and 13 percent remain uninsured in states that did expand Medicaid. In other words, access to mental health services remains an issue in many states, and New Mexico is no exception.
New Mexico continues to lead the nation in damaging substance behavioral/ mental health outcomes. It has ranked among the worst in the nation for drug overdose death rates, suicide rates and mental health illnesses.
According to a September 2014 New Mexico Legislative Finance Report, one in ten New Mexico adults have a substance dependence or abuse issue, and two in ten suffer mental illness. Perhaps even more alarming is how these adult behavioral health issues affect our children: 63 percent of victims of child abuse in New Mexico have a parent or caregiver who abuses drugs compared to 20 percent for the rest of nation. You don’t have to look very far — just think about the unthinkable events surrounding the Victoria Martens case last August.
To further exacerbate the crisis in New Mexico, a June 2013 state audit alleged that 15 of the state’s largest mental health agencies committed Medicaid fraud over three years. Thirteen of the 15 agencies originally charged with wrongdoing have since been cleared by the attorney general. Nearly all of those agencies have since been forced out of business, bringing to bear more strain on a behavioral/mental health system that is already fragile, and some would argue broken.
Mental health has always been on the fringe in New Mexico and that was true in 1987 when Samaritan Counseling Center was created under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Adams Lovekin. This year marks the Samaritan Counseling Center’s 30th anniversary of providing wholeness and healing through professional counseling services and programs. Counseling has always been at the core of its mission, but the center has branched out to provide cooperative parenting classes, financial literacy, WiseParent counseling, Workplace Services and much more. Samaritan Counseling Center has perhaps the largest concentration of bilingual/ bicultural trained clinicians in Central New Mexico.
In 2016, Samaritan Counseling Center provided 19,000 hours of counseling; served 2,800 people (children, teens, individuals and families); organized 150 cooperative parenting classes; served 250 couples in its financial literacy program; and has provided more than $8.5 million in charitable services since its inception. From its humble beginnings in rented offices at Presbyterian Hospital on Central Avenue, Samaritan has remained committed to providing professional psychological counseling services and programs regardless of a person’s economic circumstance. We work every day to help those most in need because we know first hand the
person.”
In fact, John Moore & Associates is a values-based investment business, basing all of its advice on biblical values. There are 2,250 passages in the Bible that dictate how to make financial decisions, and they are timeless and they work, Moore said.
Like Mallory, Moore encourages his employees to be engaged in civic endeavors. He also has put finances aside to do the right thing, taking large losses in some cases to right a wrong.
“There have been some situations where we made a clerical error,” Moore said. “It would have been possible to just ignore it, but we couldn’t do that.”
Moore, a former Air Force “Top Gun” instructor and test pilot, also has taught business strategy based on the Top Gun values of not cutting corners and the willingness to sacrifice everything for the good of others and for the right reasons.
Nonprofit category
Crossroads for Women, which serves women who are impacted by homelessness or incarceration, and who have both mental and addictive disorders, was chosen for the Paul and Ladonna Hopkins nonprofit award. Programs include housing and behavioral health and substance abuse services.
Crossroads easily makes the grade on the technical aspects of ethical measures. The organization has passed financial audits with no adverse findings and recently scored an unusual 100 percent on a state Behavioral Health Services Division audit of its clinical practices.
That’s all fine and good, says Executive Director KC Quirk, but what really makes Crossroads an exceptionally ethical nonprofit is its clientdriven model, which ensures the organization is fulfilling its mission by giving women the help they need.
“There’s this unique dynamic that happens here,” she said.
An active client advisory board informs decisions at Crossroads, providing feedback about what works for them and what other programs should be emphasized, said Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Gardner.
Recently, clients said the nonprofit needed an outreach program for women involved in street-level prostitution. Crossroads wrote a grant with client input and now has an employee who goes out to Central Avenue to reach out to women in need, Gardner said.
Crossroads also takes clients to the state Legislature to talk to policymakers each year and hosts open houses where officials can talk directly with clients. In that way, the women become engaged citizens while educating others.
That approach also won over the ethics award reviewers. The “magic started when they met with clients” and truly began to understand the needs Crossroads is addressing, Gardener said.
Individual category
Chet Stewart took over French Funerals & Cremations from his grandfather in 1966 at the age of 24 and now is chairman emeritus of the firm. He is the winner of the PNM Award for Individual Excellence in Ethical Business Practice.
“I’m a great believer in servant leadership,” Stewart said. “They need to know that you’re there to help them become as successful as they can be. I believe that creates an organization of trust and respect … that carries on to the customer.”
Stewart is a believer in transparency and started a company practice that allows any employee to question any action that has even the perception of a lack of integrity.
“Employees and those in the community consistently point to Chet as the epitome of transparency and ethical practices,” French Chairman Duffy Swan wrote in nominating Stewart, who has served on the boards of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the Anderson School, the Kirtland Partnership Committee and others.
Stewart recalled a time when the business was selling a piece of land. A person called and said he was interested, but would be out of town and wanted to complete the deal when he returned. Stewart agreed and stayed true to his word, even when another potential buyer offered $100,000 more. Another time, around 1970, he was hiring a new embalmer/funeral director and the best candidate was a woman. Women were rare in the profession then and his employees were skeptical. “I caught a lot of flak about it until she came in and proved herself,” he said.
“If you look at ethics as you look at the Golden Rule — ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ — for each decision, it kind of helps you to focus on what’s important,” Stewart said.
Young Leadership category
This year’s Ethical Young Leadership award goes to Thomas Broderick, an Albuquerque native who turns 40 this month.
Broderick started his career in Milwaukee but returned home in 2001 to work with his father at BPW&C, which provides tax, assurance, accounting and management advisory services. He took over after his father retired five years later and now oversees a staff of about 30 while also working actively with clients on tax services. He is a past chairman of the New Mexico Society of CPAs and is the youngest board member ever for the Council for the American Institute of CPAs.
Like other honorees, he is a big believer in transparency and regular team meetings where ethics is one of the topics.
“We decided the staff needed a venue where they could talk to me directly,” he said, adding that the monthly brown-bag lunches also give him a chance to answer questions that are submitted anonymously.
In the accounting world, ethics go hand in hand with trust because clients turn over sensitive matters to the firm. Tax accountants regularly face the challenge of helping clients minimize the taxes they pay while also playing by the rules, Broderick said.
“We have to protect our clients and we have to follow the law,” he said. “That’s a balancing act we talk about all the time within the firm.”
At BPW&C, ethics is a mindset rather than a goal measured by results.
“Like any other business, we’re results-oriented to a certain extent, but it’s OK to make an ethical decision that costs the firm some money,” Broderick said.