NMDVS Secretary Garcia Delivers Keynote Speech at a Behavioral Health Collaborative Conference

SANTA FE, NM)--New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services (NMDVS) Cabinet Secretary John M. Garcia delivered one of the keynote speeches at a recent Behavioral Health Collaborative Conference at the Albuquerque Convention Center on December 5th.

The collaborative is a joint effort between the NMDVS, the VA Hospital and Presbyterian Medical Center in Albuquerque, and other statewide medical clinics to treat behavioral health patients in New Mexico.

A major part of the 4-day conference focused on veterans—in particular, the rising Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury rate in OEF/OIF soldiers and veterans. Workshops and discussions also focused on the partnership between the NMDVS and the VA to reach out to veterans spread out over New Mexico’s 121,000 square miles—the fifth largest state in terms of area in the country.

New Mexico's strategies for helping returning vets have improved dramatically in the last five years, but more needs to be done, said Cabinet Secretary Garcia.

Of New Mexico's 1.9 million people, 180,000 are veterans. But the VA Hospital in Albuquerque actually serves closer to 400,000 vets each year, because veterans often come from surrounding states.

The VA does well with what it has, but "it needs federally-mandated funding. It doesn't have that," Garcia said. The NMDVS has tried to fill some of the gaps, and funding for those efforts has improved greatly, he said.

In 2003, when Garcia was named the inaugural Cabinet Secretary when the NMDVS was created, the budget for the state was $1.6 million. After paying the staff, that left just $200,000 for outreach, he said.

"That's a dollar a vet," Garcia said. "Can you believe that?"

Since then, the budget has increased 600 percent, he said, adding that Gov. Bill Richardson has been very supportive of veterans' issues in New Mexico.

The state faces some unusual hurdles to get services to vets, though, because of its rural nature and its diverse ethnic makeup.

Some ways the state has tried to address those issues is through the creation of new facilities in several cities; providing services over a secure version of the Internet in a practice called tele-health; creating an integration facility for homeless veterans in Albuquerque; and creating a new Crisis Intervention Center in Rio Rancho.

But PTSD can create barriers to services all on its own. One symptom of the disorder is avoidance of things that cause the person stress. A vet who overreacts to loud noises might stop going outside completely, and getting him or her to treatment can be a problem, Garcia said.

Native American veterans—of which there are more than 9,000 in New Mexico--also tend to be underserved, because even though they have a higher percentage of service per capita than any ethnic group, they also have the lowest number of claims for services, Garcia said, adding that the problem is probably somewhat based on cultural issues. Many are uncomfortable dealing with people outside their own culture, and many live on the state’s 19 Pueblos or on tribal land of the Apache nation.

"It can be hard to get to them," Garcia said. "So to address that, we trained 25 vets from the pueblos to be veterans ' services officers and do outreach where they live." The NMDVS has created a veterans’ center near Grants to work with some of the native populations there.

Still, PTSD and traumatic brain injuries remain looming problems likely to get worse as more soldiers return. Providing services and outreach are key, and the state is working with the VA and the Department of Defense to try to come up with even more strategies for help, Garcia said.

"New Mexico has taken major steps to help my veterans, but more needs to be done," Garcia said.