Congratulations to Gabriela Miller, LMFT at Samaritan's St. Joseph Center for Children & Families! She recently obtained her endorsement as a Level 3 Infant Mental Health Specialist through the NM Association for Infant Mental Health. It is part of a nationally recognized, competency based professional endorsement system. In 2008 SJCCF therapists began a training program to provide relationship based services to infants, young children, and their families. An endorsement at Level 3 allows SJCCF to offer infant mental health services through Medicaid/ OptumHealth New Mexico.

 

OptumHealth New Mexico manages the State of New Mexico Medicaid funding for behavioral health.  In June, Samaritan Counseling Center successfully concluded a fairly complicated application process with OptumHealth that resulted in Samaritan being credentialed as a "facility" rather than an "agency" in the OptumHealth contracting system.  The new facility status will result in Samaritan having an increased flexibility for our staff in providing Medicaid services and will allow us to expand our ability to serve more Medicaid recipients in the community.  We thank OptumHealth for their work with us on the project.  

 

The Samaritan Center for Changing Families offers eight-week classes for divorced or separated parents to prepare them to work together in the Wise Parent program, joint therapy, or on their own. These classes provide parent education about the impact of conflict on children, post-separation parental communication and cooperative parenting skills. The sessions run concurrently, and parents of the same child/children must attend a different class.  The next session will be offered beginning on Wednesday, July 6, from 5:30 to 7:30pm and another on Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 11:00 am. Click here for more information or to register.  A limited number of seats are still available for the class beginning July 9. 

 

Session Highlights:

Communication Skills - Conflict Resolution - Cooperative Parenting - Skills Development with Small/Large Group Discussions - A Curriculum of Structured Homework & In-Session Tasks - Video Presentations for Training

 

Healthy Marriages is honored to partner with Better Marriages to co-sponsor an international Marriage Conference - Marriage Fiesta! The Fiesta is a high impact event for couples to grow and enhance their relationship and leave feeling closer than ever before. The Fiesta is also a training ground where nationally-known experts in the field of marriage enrichment and marriage education provide tools for lay persons, therapists, clergy, and other professionals. CEU's are through Baylor University School of Social Work and National Council on Family Relations.  

 

As a  special bonus for couples who can't attend the whole conference, we are inviting couples to attend Friday night July 8^th for an exciting evening entitled "Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti". The Friday night event (7-9pm July 8^th)  is only $10 per couple and will be a great way to reconnect with your partner.  

 

Samaritan's Workplace Services program works with employers to offer short-term counseling, assessment and referral services to meet the employee wellness needs of contracted Employee Assistance Program (EAP) clients. If you know of a New Mexico business seeking EAP services that include therapy for staff and their families or other  resources for creating and maintaining healthy and productive workplaces, please contact Program Director Sarah Lee at 505-765-1100 x 314 or slee@samaritancc.com.

 

Samaritan Counseling Center's Vice-President and Clinical Director, Dr. Sarah Brenann, marks 15 years at Samaritan in 2011. Thank you to Dr. Brennan for her long-time dedication to Samaritan's mission of helping people in New Mexico find wholeness and healing through professional psychological services and education.  

 

Wise Couples - Thirty-four new Wise Coupleshave been trained in recent weeks by Healthy Marriages staff in both the Albuquerque and Farmington areas. Wise Couples take on an honorable and fulfilling task of helping other relationships and marriages become stronger and healthier in their community through support group facilitation or mentoring.

 

Samaritan is offering this seminar on Friday, August 5, 2011 from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. The seminar is presented by Amy Applegate and Connie J.A. Beck and will help you:

· Understand the importance focusing on violence and control in relationships that are ending;

· Learn about the latest research on intimate partner violence;

· Screen for intimate partner violence and use assessment tools;

· Use the Mediator's Assessment of Safety Issues and Concerns (MASIC);

· Handle ethical issues related to mediation and intimate partner violence/abuse; and

· Work across professions with legal and mental health practitioners.

 

For more information or to register, please visit the seminar website.  

 

For seventeen years the Silent Samaritans, a diverse group of Albuquerque area women and other supporters, have made a commitment to help women with limited financial resources to access counseling. In an environment sensitive to their unique needs, Samaritan has been able to provide wholeness and healing to women in their personal, family, and professional lives through the generosity of the Silent Samaritans.  

 

We invite you to join this dynamic group at the 2011 Silent Samaritan Luncheon to be held on September 14, 2011 from 11:30 am - 1:00 pm. Click here for information on sponsorships, tickets, and event details. Proceeds from the Silent Samaritan luncheon benefit the Good Samaritan Fund at the Center which provides counseling services for poor, uninsured or underinsured clients, many of whom are women.

 

Keynote Speaker Cecile Lipworth will join us to speak about City of Joy. Dedicated to the healing and empowerment of survivors of gender violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, City of Joy provides women with a place to heal emotionally from their trauma through therapy and education. It will be the creation of a new template and vision where women turn thier pain into power.  

 

Congratulations to Samaritan's St. Joseph Center for Children and Families which has been selected as a recipient of a 2011 New Mexico Humanitarian Award!

 

NMHA is a distinguished recognition program born from the desire to raise awareness of the spirit of humanity and to inspire individuals, organizations, and businesses to pursue humanitarian goals. These awards honor those who have embodied an outstanding spirit of humanity in a local, national, or international capacity.  

 

The New Mexico Humanitarian Awards Dinner will be held on Thursday, August 18th at Embassy Suites and offers the opportunity to celebrate the people who work hard to make a difference in our community. Please contact the Jewish Community Center at (505) 332-0665 for more information about the event.  

 

In June, the Center was awarded $89,771 from United Way of Central New Mexico's Community Fund for 2011/12. These funds will be used to foster healthy families and to improve the lives of children by addressing issues that affect children's academic functioning and family stresses. Because of the support of the Community Fund, Samaritan is able to serve children and families who would otherwise be without help. 

 

Gabriela Miller, LMFT, therapist at Samaritan's St. Joseph Center for Children & Families, and Margarita Galvis, SJCCF Community Board member, attended the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, sponsored by the Circles of Support Initiative and the University of New Mexico Family Development Program in collaboration with the ABC Community Schools Partnership, June 15-17. La Mesa Elementary School, located in the same neighborhood as SJCCF, was one of only four schools in Albuquerque chosen to be part of this initiative.

 

The training focused on developing leadership skills and networking opportunities, and it allows SJCCF to enhance its collaboration with La Mesa Elementary School and other agencies in the International District. The main goals for this initiative are to help families with young children connect around early childhood development, organize families to be involved in helping schools and community services determine how to meet needs of young children and families, and help to lead neighborhood conversations to uncover ideas and solutions for family-friendly communities.

 

Ms. Miller and Ms. Galvis will continue to be involved by assisting with the development of a strategic plan for the La Mesa community as well as the coordination of outreach activities in the neighborhood.