Santa Fe New Mexican by Margaret O'Hara
ALBUQUERQUE — Dan Frampton expects his organization to run out of money by mid-February.
Frampton, a licensed clinical social worker, is the president of Breaking the Silence New Mexico, a nonprofit organization that provides suicide prevention and mental health education to students across the state.
“We are literally saving lives with the work we do,” he said.
The organization, which receives a “substantial portion of its support” from public funds, entered into a contract with the state Department of Health in July to provide in-school services to students, according to tax documents. But Frampton said the department has yet to break New Mexico's silence by paying the $50,000 it is obligated to pay.
“We have about $20,000 left on the books,” he said. “So what happens after that?”
Frampton's experience is relatively common among organizations that work in and around schools, including dozens of school-based health centers. Health Ministry subsidy payments have been delayed since July, health care providers said.
The problem stems from the Department of Health's slower-than-expected transition to a new administrative services organization, Department of Health spokesperson David Barre said in an email.
Barre said the department paid more than $1.7 million to school-based health centers in December, and the administrative services organization is working to ensure contractors are enrolled in the department's new payment system. .
But nonprofits working in schools say they still haven't been paid, and want next school year's funding not to arrive six months late as Congress begins.
“It's great that the health center got paid, and I hope other nonprofits do too, but we need to find the underlying reason,” Frampton said.
Clinic Coordinator Sabrina Owens' school-based health center is located at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School and operates out of a mobile building. The center is open to students and their families from her five public charter schools in Albuquerque's South Valley. Owens said nearly 2,000 people visited her office last year using the portable device, and she plans to open two more clinics.
Things have changed since this school year. Owens said she had a contract with the Department of Health starting July 1, 2023, but those payments never showed up.
Owens began taking out personal loans each month to run the clinic. She paused her expansion plans. Staff, including Owens, had their pay cut, and the center's doctors flatly refused to pay.
Owens' center, like school-based clinics across the state, was finally paid in December.
Bill Wagner, executive director of Centro Sabila, had a similar experience, but his organization had not yet received payment from the Department of Health as of last week.
Centro Sávila provides culturally and linguistically responsive mental health and case management services, especially for immigrants and refugees.
The lack of payment created a logistical challenge for Owens and Wagner. Without guaranteed grant payments, it is impossible to determine staffing needs or plan service delivery.
“Most nonprofits like mine operate on a very fine line, and their ability to hire new staff or retain existing staff when they are uncertain whether they will receive payment for their services. ,” Wagner said.
And if financial strains cause certain employees to retire or clinics to close permanently, Owens said, critical services available to vulnerable populations could be reduced. . She also championed the continuation of the clinic to continue serving about 30 students with suicide prevention plans.
“I can't stand it if a child committed suicide because the state was responsible for closing,” Owens said.
Anamargarita Otero, community school coordinator at John Adams Middle School, said schools suffer when students and families don't have access to nonprofit medical care.
Otero argued that the Department of Health's delayed payments undermine the overall framework of community schools, a policy supported by the New Mexico Department of Public Instruction. Under this model, schools work to empower not only students but entire families through programs such as stockpiling food and clothing, free tutoring, and health seminars. Otero said nonprofit health care providers make up a key part of this framework, saying, “Nonprofit health care providers allow schools to refer families to available health care, from dentistry to therapy. I will do so.”
“In community schools, we rely on partnerships like this. We rely on outside partners to help us do things that schools are not built to do,” Otero said.
“If our government, our state legislature, our Department of Health, didn’t support the nonprofits that are doing this tremendous hard work, how could we continue to get our kids through school? How can I stay healthy enough to be a productive member?”
Otero, Owens and Wagner are members of the Albuquerque Interface, a coalition of 22 organizations. Bob Edgar, an Albuquerque religious group board member, said their first demand is prompt payment of delayed contracts with the Department of Health.
And once the payments start arriving, Edgar said officials need to ensure timely payments become the norm.
“The system needs to be fixed. … It needs to be sustainable, and to be sustainable it must rely on receiving compensation based on approved contracts and appropriated funds. “Hmm,” he said.
Specifically, Albuquerque Interfaith is working to ensure that school-based health centers and non-profit providers are included in conversations about how to ensure the reliability of the Department of Health's payment system.
Providers are also interested in this.
“We try to partner with the state,” Wagner said. “We want to be part of the solution and build relationships to create a coordinated, integrated and sustainable system.”
