100% New Mexico: A model for COVID-19 prevention and treatment

When New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham first announced a county by county system to loosen restrictions on public health measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an interesting outcome. Los Alamos County, the wealthiest county in the state with a median household income of around $115,000, was the only "yellow" county on the three-tiered scale (the rest falling into the "red" zone). Then something unexpected happened. The next day San Miguel, a small county in Northern New Mexico, went "yellow." San Miguel, with an average household income of approximately $31,000, has been among our counties with the lowest COVID-19 cases per capita throughout the pandemic. Why is that?

I may have part of the answer. In 2018 I introduced legislation to start the Anna Age Eight Institute, the first of its kind center to take a data-driven and community empowered approach to strengthening families in order to prevent childhood trauma. Their prevention strategy is an initiative supporting county stakeholders in ensuring families have access to vital services shown to increase the health, safety and resilience of children and parents — guided by the book "100% Community: Ensuring 10 Vital Services for Surviving and Thriving."

The five services for surviving are medical care, behavioral health care, food security programs, housing security programs and transportation. Five services for thriving are parent supports, early childhood learning, community schools, youth mentors and job training. These 10 services are interconnected, weaving together a countywide system of care — one now being tested in ways no one could imagine a year ago.

In 2019 Matt Probst, medical director of El Centro Family Health, serving seven counties in northern New Mexico, started the institute’s initiative in San Miguel County. Ten action teams, each focused on a vital sector, were organized within weeks.

When COVID-19 hit, San Miguel County was ready with the Initiative's action teams focused on strengthening each sector. Probst, who led the initiative's medical action team, worked tirelessly to set up timely testing, local contact tracing and all the components of comprehensive prevention and care.

The 10 action teams recognized that an effective response to the pandemic goes beyond the medical sector. The countywide response required ten accessible services, allowing families to keep stabilized, supported, fed and housed, in order to comply with the state’s public health guidelines and to endure quarantining, isolating, social distancing and mask-wearing.

It turns out that the strategy to reduce childhood trauma is the same one required to successfully address the COVID-19 pandemic. Resourced families and communities do better in any crisis with these supports in place.

The success of San Miguel County, still a work in progress, shows what happens when community stakeholders come together with a common vision and goal. Probst has shown how  such collaboration with city and county elected leadership and stakeholders, working in alignment with the governor's office and public health, can achieve results during a pandemic.

The 100% San Miguel initiative has demonstrated that a huge impact can be made when a community has a framework to guide them and the collective will to make everyone’s health the number one priority. Unlike most of the nation, there is a community recovery plan to follow with the initiative, one that comes from the history of New Mexicans taking care of their families. It’s fitting that the statewide initiative is called 100% New Mexico.

Other counties and communities engaged in the 100% New Mexico work are Taos, Socorro, Rio Arriba, Otero, Valencia, Catron and Taos Pueblo. New Mexico can show the nation how to move forward in chaotic times, leaving no family behind. That’s 100% New Mexico.

Bill Soules, PhD, is a New Mexico state senator representing Senate District 37 (Doña Ana County).