ValueOptions(R) New Mexico Provides $10.3 Million for Community Behavioral Health Care Org...( LATEST $3 MILLION MEANS GREATER EXP...),Health

LATEST $3 MILLION MEANS GREATER EXPANSION OF COMMUNITY-BASED BEHAVIORAL

HEALTH CARE SERVICES ACROSS NEW MEXICO

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Today ValueOptions(R) New Mexico, the behavioral health organization that serves the New Mexico Behavioral Health Collaborative, announced it is awarding an additional $3 million to behavioral health care providers to further develop community-based services across the state. This funding, coming one week after ValueOptions(R) awarded $7.3 million for community-based reinvestment and services expansion to New Mexico providers, means ValueOptions(R) New Mexico has granted a total of $10.3 million to expand behavioral health care services in the state.

"This additional $3 million in grants is significant because New Mexico's innovative and dedicated providers and consumer organizations submitted applications with more than $20 million in funding requests," said Mary Mastrandrea, Interim CEO of ValueOptions(R) New Mexico. "We are now able to fund more than half of the behavioral health projects proposed."

The availability of this latest round of funding, like the $4.2 million before it, is the result of effective fiscal management, statewide service delivery improvements, increased enrollment and a shift toward more community-based models of care. ValueOptions decided to use every dollar of the savings from these efforts to help providers add services that will allow consumers to obtain the care they need closer to home.

"Thanks to ValueOptions New Mexico we will be able to sustain our outpatient mental health and substance abuse services for Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and San Miguel counties," said Violanda Nunez, executive director of Ayudantes, Inc., in Santa Fe, N.M. "With this funding, we will be able to continue providing a wide range of services, including community-based psychiatric services, medication monitoring, psychosocial rehabilitation, intensive outpatie
'/>"/>