(Photo by Jo Lutz for the Daily Press)
Hidalgo Medical Services Chief Behavioral Health Officer Syl Manlove, pictured, was hired at HMS around the same time as its withdrawal from the county-owned Tu Casa facility this summer. HMS is now offering all behavioral health services at its Community Health Center on Pope Street, including those formerly housed at Tu Casa. Manlove will eventually oversee a transition of these services to a dedicated facility on Hudson Street.
By JO LUTZ
Daily Press Correspondent
This month, behavioral health patients of Hidalgo Medical Services who were previously served at the Grant County-owned Tu Casa facility began showing up for appointments at the Community Health Center, HMS’ main Silver City campus on Pope Street.
Despite a few staff having to share offices, recently hired Chief Behavioral Health Officer Syl Manlove says the transition has been smooth.
“It feels different, it feels very positive,” Manlove said. “There’s kind of a hustle and bustle going on.”
Tu Casa had historically catered to high-needs populations, acting as a hub for substance-use treatment, medication-assisted treatment, care coordination and medication management, crisis intervention, group therapy, outpatient counseling, peer support and other services.
According to HMS CEO Dan Otero, these services are being fully preserved as they join other counseling and behavioral services on the second floor of the health center.
“We can provide any of the Tu Casa services at any of [our] locations,” Otero emphasized.
But eventually, the plan is to again independently house the services from the former Tu Casa — along with a primary care provider — in the Bridges to Wellness building on Hudson Street.
HMS already owns Bridges to Wellness, which was the name of a federal grant-funded program that provided care coordination for the seriously mentally ill and those with related physical health conditions. When that grant ran out, staff moved on or were transferred to other departments. HMS is now trying to relicense and reopen the Bridges to Wellness building as a Community Behavioral Health Center.
Manlove said she thinks that both the services’ temporary location on Pope Street and the future location on Hudson are superior to Tu Casa’s 32nd Street Bypass location.
“The access, I think, is a lot better for people over here,” she said. “I’m projecting that because we are here now, we will start to see more people that are dealing with substance issues.”
In addition, Manlove said she is noticing a lot more synergy between care providers for the former Tu Casa patients, now that they all work in the main building. She anticipates a lot more opportunities to educate staff to better serve this population and connect them to more services.
“I’m already seeing people talking more, referring patients from, you know, therapy to med management and back and forth,” Manlove said. “I think it’s going to be positive for our patients.”
The Daily Press asked Manlove if she anticipated any disruption for existing Pope Street staff or patients while accommodating this new population — with some exhibiting more acute behaviors at times. She said she also saw this as an opportunity for educating staff on identifying and responding to crises.
“Everybody has a different definition of what a crisis is,” Manlove said. “For some people, it’s that their coffee maker didn’t work. Crisis is very subjective. In the behavioral health world, the technical definition is someone who is in danger of harming themselves or harming other people. … We don’t see a lot of crisis patients.”
One example she gave is the difference between suicidal ideation — not defined as a crisis — as opposed to plans for suicide, which constitute a crisis and trigger a crisis safety plan. Manlove said there is policy and protocol in place at HMS, but that it will be an “educational transition.”
“It will be different, but that’s also a good thing,” she said.
She also pointed to the proximity of law enforcement as another advantage of both the Pope and Hudson Street clinics, should security be required.
In Manlove’s last position, the closest sheriff was an hour and a half away in Socorro, and the tribal police were three hours away. She led a community health center on the remote Alamo reservation near Magdalena. Like HMS, it was a federally qualified health care center. Manlove said she had worked most of her career at FQHCs, treating many low-income, high-needs patients presenting with complex cases.
“Access is the biggest thing,” she said of these environments — “making integrated care accessible to patient populations.”
Manlove had master’s degrees in both public administration and health care management going into that position, and was inspired by her experience there to obtain another degree.
“I’d have people walk into my office, like the mom telling me, you know, my son is addicted to heroin, I need help,” Manlove recalled. “And I could talk with her … but I could not do anything clinically, because I was not a provider.”
Manlove enrolled in Colorado Christian University, where she got her master’s in mental health clinical counseling and became a licensed professional clinical counselor in New Mexico.
“In this role that I’m doing now, it’s really opened another door for me, because I can be a leader and a clinician,” she said.
Jo Lutz may be reached at jo@scdaily press.com.