Rio Arriba County Department of Health and Human Services

 

 

In 1997, upon discovering a growing and seemingly localized opioid epidemic Rio Arriba County established the Rio Arriba Health and Human Services (RAHHS), the first county-run health and human services department in the state of New Mexico. It serves all county residents, but staff specifically reach out to individuals experiencing substance use disorder who have survived overdose at the local hospital, and to individuals presenting with opioid use disorder (OUD) who are identified at the jail, by law-enforcement, or before a court.

 

RAHHS has led innovative programs and ways of providing services to the community where jail diversion is at every intercept point through a county-led network of provider agencies connected through outcome-based case management. 

 

The department developed county capacity to support Adult Day Care, substance and opioid use disorder treatment and case management through Medicaid.

RAHHS Programs & Services

  • REROUTE 
  • RAC PICK Mobile Service Program  
  • RAC Peer Supported Probabtion Program 
  • CRIT Program 
  • RAC Benefit Enrollement Program 
  • RAC Naloxone Enhancement Program 
  • RAC Vaccine and Behvioural Health Equity Pporgam 
  • Northern New Mexico Rural Health Network Program 
  • Northern New Mexico Rural Housing Taskforce 
 
Rio Arriba Adult Day Care Facility and Senior Services
 
We have partnered with Rio Arriba Senior Programs to expand programming, clinical oversight and wrap-around services for ambulatory disabled residents of RAC. Participants are offered opportunities to socialize, eat breakfast and lunch, play games, exercise, go on outings, participate in arts and crafts, receive educational information, and care coordination services. Participants are assessed to develop an individualized service plan that works for them.
 
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have offered masks, and information and coordinated pandemic response with testing and vaccine accessibility.
 
For more information, contact Benefits Enrollment Coordinator/Adult Day Care Director Lyle L. Lomayma at 505-747-7780, to email him, click here.

 RACHC is the designated Health and Human Services planning council for the Board of Rio Arriba County Commissioners. The Health Council and its task force include health care planning, resource development, pandemic response, behavioral health resource development, legislative advocacy, and health education. The council meets every third Thursday of the month. For more information, email RAHHS Director Ahmed Dadzie. 

Pathways: an outcomes-based approach to improving healthcare 

For more than a decade, Rio Arriba County has used Pathways Care Coordination, an outcomes-based chronic disease management service delivery model. This model works to mitigate social factors that influence a patient's ability to manage their disease, which treats the patient as a whole person with a chronic condition- not unlike diabetes or heart disease - and is shown to lead to better overall outcomes. RAHHS is the first in the nation to use this specific model of intensive case management to treat OUD.

Rio Arriba Case Management and Outreach Services is nationally recognized by the federal government as a model for rural health care delivery. 

RAC is one of about twenty counties across the nation piloting an innovative approach to case management that holds case managers accountable for producing positive health outcomes rather than for producing specific units of service.

For the last few decades, insurance companies have paid providers for producing specific units of service such as tests, immunizations or CAT scans, regardless of the impact of these units of service on the overall health of the individual being served. The result is a lot of unnecessary procedures and poorer health. RAC is one of the few providers in the country that judges its case managers on their ability to improve patients’ health. 

We provide intensive case management for the following groups:

1) High-risk pregnancies;

2) Frequent users of the emergency room;

3) Community members who are overusing alcohol and other drugs.

Our case managers help community members find the services that are right for them.

The Northern New Mexico Rural Health Network

is a network of behavioral health, medical and social service providers in Rio Arriba and Taos counties including the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos and Jicarilla Apache Nation that provide community members with the services needed to prevent, treat and recover from substance use disorder and opioid use disorder.

The opioid use & substance use reduction network centers communities are directly impacted guiding them through harm reduction to residential and aftercare treatment among other services. Community members in need of services get helped to create an individualized plan that serves their specific needs.

HAHS Director

Dr. Ahmed Dadzie

Health and Human Services Director

Rio Arriba County Health Commons

2010 Industrial Park Road

Española, NM 87532

Phone: 505-753-3143

Fax: 505-753-1769

HHS STAFF:

Victoria Trujillo  

Administrative Assistant

Sixto Aguirre 

CPSW/Special Projects Coordinator 

Edwina Romero,

Community Health Worker

Melissa Vigil-Martinez, Compliance/Monitor Tracker Supervisor

Katrina Padilla,

Community Health Worker

Mona Serna, Case Manager II

Andrea Lucero, Case Manager II

Frank Aldaz, Special Projects Coordinator