OPINION: Albuquerque kids are being abandoned

I spend my days working alongside a team of New Mexican providers and supporting staff who bring health care directly to Albuquerque schools. We park our mobile clinic outside of schools, set up for the day, and meet kids where they are, not where the system expects them to be. In doing so, we have removed barriers that keep so many young people from accessing even the most basic care.

That is why Bernalillo County’s sudden decision to pull the plug on Health Yeah! is so alarming. No warning. No reason given. Just a notice that in less than 30 days, the work we have been doing for kids and families is supposed to end.

Let’s be clear: This is not just bad management. This is reckless abandonment of the most vulnerable among us — the children we’re sworn to protect.

For more than a year, Health Yeah! has provided no-cost visits to students who otherwise had nowhere to turn. Kids got their asthma treated before it landed them in the emergency room. Teens got mental health support in the very schools where they struggle. Parents who could not take time off work finally had a lifeline for their children.

And now? Bernalillo County, by unilateral decision, is effectively telling these same families: Figure it out. In a city where too many already fall through the cracks, they have widened the chasm.

In health care, trust is everything. A child will only share their fears if they know the provider will be there next week. Parents will only believe in a system if it follows through. By slamming the door shut with less than 30 days’ notice, the county is not only betraying that trust; it is forcing us, as their providers, into what is considered physician abandonment.

New Mexico medical standards call for at least 90 days to responsibly wind down care, closer to 120 for fragile patients. Anything less is universally considered, by health care providers, to be unethical. Full stop.

Some may say, “Contracts end all the time.” But children are not contracts. Families are not line items in a budget. The progress we have made in Albuquerque — kids healthier, families less afraid, schools better supported — is not disposable.

Ending this program without explanation, without a plan, sends one message: These children do not matter.

This is the point where we decide what kind of city we are. Do we stand by while families are abandoned, or do we demand better?

On Sept. 23, the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners will meet. We need to pack that room. We need parents, teachers, neighbors and anyone who believes in protecting kids, to speak out for continued access to this vital resource.

Go to healthyeahnm.com/support. Sign the petition. Contact county officials. Share this message. If you care about children in Albuquerque, this is your fight too.

I have watched a student’s face light up when they realized they finally had a doctor to talk to. I have seen the relief of a parent who realized their child’s care would not come with a bill. I have seen my staff, exhausted but proud, show up every day because they believe these kids are worth it.

And now, with the stroke of a pen, the county wants to erase all of that.

Not if I have anything to say about it.

Albuquerque’s kids are not collateral damage. They are the future of this city, and they deserve stability, dignity and care. If the county will not do right by them, our community must demand it.