Resource center offers advocacy, healing

GALLUP - On Thursday, the Molina Healthcare Gallup Resource Center, an office in Rio West Mall, celebrated their reopening after a two-week renovation with a ribbon-cutting. The staff expressed excitement to continue the center's offerings under the Turquoise health program; staff help members and non-members to coordinate health care services, benefits, enrollment in Medicare or Medicaid and provide internet access. They also have the unique benefit in that staff are fluent in Navajo.

Before the ribbon-cutting, the center was prayed over by medicine man T.J. Anderson, who also talked about the importance of the Navajo language.

Molina Healthcare is a managed care organization, an option for Medicaid coverage. Molina Healthcare Senior Vice President and Plan President Carolyn Ingram said the organization has a focus on rural communities and servicing potential barriers between members and services.

'Our team here all speaks Navajo' Ingram recognized the fact that of the local population in the McKinley County area, only 40% of homes have internet access. This is part of why the resource center offers internet access.

"We're really excited about the work that the team does here because we made sure that our health plan really represents New Mexico on purpose. Our team here all speaks Navajo and they're from this area. We're excited to have them working and helping us. There's other medicaid health plans across the state, Presbyterian [Health Plan], United [Healthcare] Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Molina - and we're the only one with a resource center here in McKinley County and we're the only one with an office of Native American peers." Ingram said she hasn't heard of another resource center like this anywhere across the country. She said she is from New Mexico and that influences her work. staff members' names. She commended staff for their help and said Molina Healthcare was a lot more helpful than their former insurance provider. Marita also told family members to visit the center.

Molina Healthcare and the center also have a unique service with traditional healing, or holistic healing services. Nelson said traditional healing is an added value service for Molina. It is not limited to Native Americans, but is for all Molina members. The service offers reimbursements for traditional health services for inpatient and outpatient services. Barney added that the service also covers acupuncture and herbal remedies, as holistic healing services. Barney noted that the center helps Molina Healthcare members and non-member visitors, but added that most are so impressed with the level of service they receive that they switch to Molina.

With the renovation complete, the resource center staff are looking forward to not only resuming regular services but the Rio West Mall Fall Into Fitness Health Fair on Sept. 21. The center will host an enrollment fair. "It's important to me that we help keep our state healthy, help give services back into the community because I want people to want their children to grow up and stay here and have a healthier place to live," said Ingram. "I want New Mexico to be successful."

Ingram said Molina Healthcare and the center keep in mind social health drivers as part of their medicare and medicaid models, which means that along with offering services for healthcare they also help people make connections with food security options, transportation, employment and links to housing resources.

The center helped 3, 000 people last year. Community Engagement Coordinator Cheri Nelson said the number of people coming into the center has grown in the last year due to their focused outreach and dayto-day efforts.

Face-to-face assistance The center offers members and visitors face-toface assistance. "It's in person versus having to be over the phone, that's why the facility was created," Molina Healthcare Tribal Liaison Manager Josephine Barney said.

"A lot of the older populations of Native Americans are very limited with technology," Nelson pointed out. "A lot of the elderly population come in when they don't understand their insurance. That's where we come into play so we can help them, assist them on where they need to be if they don't know exactly where their category level is. We look into it for them and find out what they need to apply for the Medicaid benefits." She added that amid filling out Medicaid applications they also assist members in filling out applications for SNAP or food benefits.

Staff have developed relationships with members and visitors, Barney added that there are other members who come by just to chat and others who bring items to the office such as table centerpieces. Barney smiled when she talked about an elderly Navajo member who brings all her healthcare mail to the office to discuss the details of her healthcare plan with Barney and staff.

The resource center's most unique offering is that of staff that are fluent in Navajo and able to translate and connect members and visitors with care coordination and enrollment.

Effective communication Nelson said it's important to be diverse in the Navajo language in order to communicate effectively. Barney and Nelson each said that helping members is part of why they love their jobs. "What I love about my job," Nelson said, "is how I can communicate and conduct with the community, my people, to advocate for them. At the end of the day I reflect back and if I see one member to say 'Ahéhee" [thank you] for helping me' and leave with a smile, then I know I did a good job."

Barney agreed with Nelson and said she gains a sense of satisfaction from her work at the center, citing that members come in stressed and are calm when they leave after sorting through their medical health coverage issues.

Some Molina Healthcare members attended the ribbon-cutting and said they enjoyed coming to the center. D.J. Ramon said the staff have been very helpful over the last year that he's been a member. Ramon said he was so impressed with the center that he told his brother to check it out, and his brother also became a member.

Commendation John and Marita Nakai said the center was helpful when they first got health insurance. Marita knew