Report: New Mexico programs can do more for mothers, kids

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More could be done to improve the well-being of young children and their mothers in New Mexico if there were greater collaboration among state programs charged with helping families, legislative analysts said Wednesday. The researchers released their findings and...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More could be done to improve the well-being of young children and their mothers in New Mexico if there were greater collaboration among state programs charged with helping families, legislative analysts said Wednesday.

The researchers released their findings and recommendations during a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, saying the state's resurrected Children's Cabinet will be an opportunity to build coordination across state agencies and even between programs within the same department.

Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel told lawmakers that the Children's Cabinet held its first meeting Tuesday and that the new report will provide a blueprint for how to make the state's numerous efforts targeted at mothers and children easier to access and less redundant.

Kunkel and other officials said one of the key issues facing New Mexico's children is hunger and that the state suffers from one of the highest level of household food insecurity in the nation.

Nearly 18 percent of households in New Mexico experienced food insecurity between 2015 and 2017, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Census Bureau reports a similar proportion of children in New Mexico living in food-insecure households.

The legislative analysts said they were even more concerned since the federal figures showed New Mexico was the only state with a statistically significant increase — more than 5 percent — in food insecurity from 2012-2014 to 2015-2017.

The level of food insecurity is almost certainly having a negative effect on the health of children, according to the evaluation.

Kunkel said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has given her a mission to find out how to change those statistics.

In addition to the Children's Cabinet, the legislative evaluation highlighted opportunities for data sharing and collaboration through the state's creation of an Early Childhood Education Department to oversee several existing programs.

One of those relies on Medicaid funding to provide voluntary home visits to parents of newborn children and coordinate medical care and educational services.

The new childhood agency also will oversee the Families, Infant and Toddler program geared toward infants and toddlers at risk of developmental delays, including babies born to drug-addicted mothers.

Micaela Fischer, a program evaluator with the Legislative Finance Committee, said collaboration has been a challenge even for programs housed within the same agency.

"It's worth noting as we move ahead to establishing this new state agency that there's a great need for strategy and for the cabinet secretaries of all agencies with early childhood programs to really make concrete plans to show how their programs are going to operate better together moving ahead," she said.

Fischer outlined a new program that's being piloted by the Health Department in Albuquerque's South Valley through a private grant. If successful, the Family Connects program — developed at Duke University — could serve as New Mexico's centralized intake and referral system to catch women soon after they give birth.

The program would address one of the recommendations made in the evaluation to organize a comprehensive home visiting and early childhood support system.

Other recommendations include developing strategies to ensure state-funded programs are actually making a difference. This means regularly monitoring performance and sharing data, Fischer said.

The other recommendation reinforces the mandate that the Children's Cabinet meet at least six times a year.

More