ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is asking state lawmakers for more funding to expand a program that evaluates children in cases that might involve child abuse.
Officials say the University of New Mexico Hospital’s Child Abuse Response Team helps provide a measure of safety for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Leslie Strickler is the team’s medical director and is the state’s only board-certified child abuse pediatrician. She has the expertise to determine whether a child’s injuries may have been caused deliberately or by accident.
According to Strickler, New Mexico has high rates of child abuse and neglect and has a pediatric population at very high risk of maltreatment.
Additional funding for the program is one of the legislative priorities for the Health Sciences Center this year.
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