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Movers & Shakers: Jamie Michael looks to improve mental health care in county

Las Cruces Sun-News - 1/5/2017

Jan. 05--LAS CRUCES -- Jamie Michael grew up in the small town of Bibo, New Mexico, about 40 miles northwest of Albuquerque on a historic Spanish land grant.

Her family owned a small bar and store there, and Michael said they fostered a spirit of service, in which people helping other people was second nature.

"That was the culture of my family," said Michael, who's now Doña Ana County Health and Human Services Department director.

So when Michael selected a career field, she gravitated toward one with a lot of potential for helping others.

Michael, 43, has been selected as one of the Sun-News' 2017 Movers & Shakers, people expected to have significant influence in the community in the coming year. As head of the county's health department, she'll be tasked with overseeing spending of a new $2.8 million grant to improve the mental health care system across the county, which has suffered from persistent gaps.

After graduating from high school, Michael attended the University of New Mexico, where she earned a bachelor's degree in community health in 1996. She said she appreciated the breadth of work that can be done in the field, which focuses on disease and injury prevention.

She worked in Albuquerque for about a decade, much of the time spent at the UNM Health Sciences Center. She also implemented a project to offer primary and mental health services to families from some schools. From 2001 to 2004, she was a program manager for Safer New Mexico Now, which promoted child passenger safety and DWI prevention.

Michael was hired in 2004 as a division manager for the county's Health and Human Services Department, where her focus was on improving conditions in the county's three dozen colonias, poor border communities lacking infrastructure. Michael said she moved to Las Cruces to be closer to family who'd moved here. She spent a one-year stint working for Luna County, but returned to Doña Ana County after that.

The county's move toward tackling mental health care was spearheaded by former County Commissioner Wayne Hancock, whose term ended Dec. 31.

Michael, who has served as director of the department since January 2014, and representatives from other key organizations applied for a federal grant to implement a 2016 law called Assisted Outpatient Treatment. Under the measure, a judge can order someone with mental illness to get outpatient treatment, a moderate-level intervention that's aimed at avoiding more serious mental health episodes that can lead to involuntary hospitalization or to jail. The county received notice in late November that the federal government had awarded a $2.8 million grant to implement a four-year pilot program based on the new law.

The aim is to serve about 30 to 40 residents per year who repeatedly find themselves involuntarily hospitalized or jailed because of incidents stemming from their mental illness, officials said. Any court-mandated action through the program will be on the civil side, not the criminal.

Michael said she sees a shift in perception about mental illness, from people simply not talking about the problem to people discussing it in everyday conversations. She said that's a starting place to address such a complex issue.

"It's more of a positive feeling, so we can do something about it," she said.

Michael said Doña Ana County's size proved to be an asset in applying for the grant. Some counties are so small they don't have enough resources to implement a behavioral-health-related project. But others may be so large that a project would be cumbersome.

In most instances, the new grant won't be used to pay for direct mental health treatment for residents, Michael said. But it will support the systems, such as the courts and paying for attorneys to represent clients in their legal processes, that allow for outpatient treatment to be carried out. Another use of the funds will be "very intense case management" to ensure residents with mental illness are given treatment and support, she said.

In addition, "we're hoping to build a stronger peer support program," Michael said.

A big component of the grant will be an evaluation to see whether it's making an impact, Michael said. At issue now is that, while there are a number of services for residents with mental illness, they're not meeting all of the needs, she said.

"So if I can be part of a community initiative that helps align resources to people's needs, then I'm very proud of the work I do," she said.

Ideally, after the new program takes effect, residents will see positive strides in their mental health by avoiding cycling through severe mental health episodes and states of recovery, and avoiding the criminal justice system.

"Participants will have a much better chance of maintaining recovery, and quality of life could potentially drastically improve," Michael said.

Also, judges and care takers will have "another tool to help people," one they don't now have, Michael said.

The county health department, under Michael's leadership, will be tasked with administering the $700,000-per-year grant.

County Manager Julia Brown said she has "absolute and complete confidence" in Michael's abilities, including her oversight of the new grant award.

"She's an intelligent and quick individual," she said. "Not only is she a good administrator and leader, she is a great people person. Her staff loves her because she's genuine. She cares about them and about the mission of the department and the people we serve."

The new federal grant goes hand-in-hand with a project the county already had launched called the Stepping Up Initiative. It's meant to reduce the number of people with a mental health condition who are ending up in the county jail, Michael said. The initiative, sponsored in part by the National Association of Counties, gives an approach for evaluating needs and finding possible solutions, though it doesn't dictate which of the solutions are applied.

Brown says she's optimistic the changes could help reduce the number of people with mental illness sitting in jail.

"It's going to take a while, but the combination of this grant and our Stepping Up Initiative are definitely targeting reducing the number of people with behavioral health problems who are incarcerated and making sure that, for the period of time they are incarcerated, that they have access to resources and treatment and counseling, as they may need it," she said.

In addition to her work as head of the county's Health and Human Services Department, Michael maintains her certification as a child car seat safety instructor. She teaches others on the subject and attends free clinics to advise parents on the proper use of child seats and restraints. Michael has two children, ages 5 and 8, and stays active as a parent in their schools.

Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5443, dalba@lcsun-news.com or @AlbaSoular on Twitter.

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(c)2017 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)

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