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Namaste to close its 12-bed
residential facility in Tomé by summer's end
July 14, 2007
By Julia M. Dendinger
jdendinger@news-bulletin.com
With the state shifting its focus
on children's health care, local treatment group Namaste is making
the transition as well. Carol Reinhart, executive director of
Namaste Child and Family Development Center, said in a recent press
release that the state's new direction is focused on community and
home-based care for children and families.
At Namaste's June 12 board meeting,
the decision was made to close its 12-bed residential treatment
facility in Tomé by the end of this summer.
"There has been a lot of change in
children's healthcare," Reinhart said in a telephone interview.
"Residential care is changing.
"We are down to five children at
the facility," Reinhart said. "We are working with their legal
guardians during this transition. Some are ready to step down to
foster treatment care. Others may go to different facilities to
continue treatment."
Reinhart said Namaste has given
itself 60 days to properly close down the residential facility. "It
is a priority that each child makes a successful transition," she
said. "We don't want to set anyone back."
She went on to say that much of the
work Namaste does deals with the children's relationships to others.
"Relationships with peers, parents, staff, teachers," Reinhart said.
"In light of that, we want to do everything possible to ensure that
the progress they've made and the relationships they've built are
not damaged."
The state's shift is aimed at
supporting children and families in resolving issues through
community-based services, preventing the need for residential care.
This reduced role for residential treatment has challenged Namaste
and its board of directors to explore new ways to meet the mental
health needs of the youth it serves in a manner more closely aligned
with the state's new direction.
Though the decision to close the
Tomé facility was a difficult one, Reinhart said Namaste is looking
forward. "We would like to expand our outpatient services," she
said. "We usually carry a waiting list. So we would like to bring in
case managers and therapists, especially in light of the state's
priority to do more treatment in the home, to help children before
they need to leave."
Reinhart said they are optimistic
and feel this is the right change for their agency at this time. "We
will keep serving children," she said. "That is our goal."
The Namaste residential treatment
facility in Tomé was the founding program, the way in which the
agency first began caring for the children of New Mexico in 1990.
The board also decided to begin offering outpatient therapy,
neurofeedback, and case management and when certified, behavior
management services in Valencia County.
An area of need that is growing for
Namaste are treatment foster care homes, Reinhart said. "We would
like to have more families in Valencia County," she said.
Namaste will also still continue to
care for the children of New Mexico through its statewide treatment
foster care program, its largest, most successful, outreach program.
These sites are located in Albuquerque, Farmington, Gallup, Santa
Fe, Taos, Las Vegas, Los Lunas and Roswell. Several of these sites
will offer the same array of outpatient services the agency will be
offering in their new Valencia County facility.
For more information, contact
Namaste at 865-6176.
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