Free mental health services available for New Mexico wildfire, flooding victims

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico Human Services Department launched a program it hopes will help those still feeling the impact of our active wildfire season.

The ‘Help is Here NM’ program was launched in May and has helped more than 2,500 people since then by providing services such as counseling.

“People are really struggling and especially now with the subsequent flooding after the fires. Flooding has become such a problem there, so they don’t wanna leave their homes, they don’t wanna leave the ranches because that’s what their livelihood was,” said Dr. Lisa Salazar, the critical services manager for behavioral health. “So the peer support workers are going out and offering disaster coping skills, stress management skills work, emotional support and they make referrals for housing support, food, for health and for mental health if they need therapy in that respect.”

The program will extend for another nine months, from September 2022 to June 2023. The services will also be available in Spanish.

All services, including crisis counseling, are completely free and available seven days a week either in-person, over the phone or through video call. For more information, visit their website.