New Mexico’s Children

Bitter competition between Presbyterian and UNM has meant kids who need specialized care are getting sent out of state — instead of to the competitor. Now the hospitals are finally talking about a partnership.

New Mexico’s infant mental health pioneers aim to eradicate “the myth,” as they call it, that babies cannot remember what they see or hear. Rather, they say, those early experiences can be life-defining for early childhood.

The two-year grant will support news coverage “directed toward child well-being, policy change, and a healthy, just New Mexico.”

At least 44 states have introduced formal protocols or programs to boost oversight and monitoring of psychotropic drug use by children. Yet while other states work to limit psychiatric drugs, 30,000 NM children have prescriptions.

Albuquerque doctor is under investigation in 36 patient deaths.

We asked five national experts in child well-being, health, education and policy to write short essays in response to recent stories we have covered. Here’s what they had to say.

I discovered a core of human goodness in troubled places, and it struck me as one of the great ironies that such darkness persists amidst such a culture of deep-rooted familial strength.