Physician Sam Slishman was not particularly interested in helping the homeless.
Then he began working at UNMH.
"In college, I studied math and physics and had no connection to the homeless," he said. "In the ER, I saw that it was a high priority."
Slishman created the Endorphin Power Co. two years ago to help the county create a detoxification center and community center for the poor and homeless.
Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, who received a tour of Endorphin Power Co. on Wednesday, agreed with Slishman and said the entire community would benefit from the detoxification center.
"If it's done properly, and I think it will be, it will preserve UNMH for true emergencies, which is their true mission," he said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The center
Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services (MATS) was created by the company to help better treat inebriated patients and to alleviate overcrowded ERs.
"The center will be a better service for the Albuquerque indigent," he said, adding that the homeless treated at the University of New Mexico Hospital for intoxication are allowed to sleep until sober, but that's where the help ends.
"All too often, intoxicated people are delivered to the ERs only to receive minimal care other than shelter," he said. "Their problems would be much better solved in a central location."
He also said the center will help bring more revenue to local hospitals, because right now, UNMH collects about 20 percent of the bills sent out, Slishman said.
"The patients we are talking about don't typically pay," he said.
Freeing up the ER
Along with more rapid service in the emergency rooms, Slishman hopes the center will benefit the community as a whole.
"There are insured patients not being seen," he said. "So the general public will get better service, the hospital makes more and inebriates get better care."
The detoxification center will be located in the old Charter Hospital building on 5901 Zuni Road, run by the county and funded by city and county taxes. The community center will be located across the street and will be nonprofit.
The community center will be open to the public, Slishman said, but geared toward graduates of the MATS program. He said the community center would offer Alcoholic Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous support groups.
He said he doesn't foresee problems with the recovering alcoholics and drug abusers intermingling with the surrounding community at the center.
"I think it's going to be positive," he said. "People who enter detox generally want to be there and recover."
Slishman said he hopes the center will be open in three to five months. The community center should be open to the public in the next month or two.
Slishman said intoxication has a ripple effect in the community.
"By diminishing drug and alcohol use, there is less domestic violence, car crashes and pedestrian injuries," he said.
Funding
Slishman said the centers have been funded by many different components.
The Daniels fund, a funding agency in Denver, gave $50,000 to the center. The McCune Charitable Foundation in Santa Fe allocated the center another $50,000, and $30,000 came from private donations.
"We need a lot more money," Slishman said. "We are still looking for private donations and writing more grants to the United Way and state agencies as well as going to the state legislation to seek money.
UNM alumnus Ed Mazel was hired to lobby the state for money to fund a transitional housing facility.
After leaving the three-to-five-day detoxification center, people will have an option to receive treatment up to 30 days longer or reside in the housing facility for up to six months, Mazel said.
The housing facility is looking at a price tag of $1.8 million, he said, half of which will be donated by contractor Ted Waterman, who is raising the money through fund-raisers. The other half will be lobbied for in the upcoming legislative session in Santa Fe.
"We are seeking up to $900,000 without stepping on the county's toes," Mazel said. "I know they have other projects they need to get funded."
