{"id":10543,"date":"2020-08-02T18:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T00:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=10543"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:16:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T19:16:58","slug":"wesst-and-client-navigate-pandemic-problems-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/obtaining-a-loan\/wesst-and-client-navigate-pandemic-problems-together\/","title":{"rendered":"WESST and Client Navigate Pandemic Problems Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Amanda Davison, CEO of The Family Connection<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When the novel coronavirus pandemic reached the U.S. early\nthis year, many patients stopped seeking in-person treatment at The Family\nConnection, a mental-health provider with offices in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho,\nLos Lunas and Santa Fe. Even though the business was considered essential and\nthus permitted to operate during statewide shutdowns, cancellations escalated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitially we were unsure of what it was going to look\nlike,\u201d said Amanda Davison, a licensed marriage and family therapist and\ncompany CEO. She and her 32 employees developed a hybrid approach, treating\nsome patients in traditional settings and counseling others using online\ntelemedicine platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor some of our people it\u2019s been a bigger challenge\u201d to\nmaintain the patient-therapist relationship at a physical distance. \u201cWe\u2019ve had\nto be cognizant of which modality is best for each patient \u2014 trying to be there\nfor whatever they may need from us. For example, our adolescents: This is their\nmodality of communication, so when they\u2019ve been able to really bring us into\ntheir world, they\u2019ve done significantly better.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As protracted shelter-in-place mandates stressed domestic\nlife, the demand for mental-health care increased, Davison said. \u201cThe longer\nit\u2019s gone on and the longer people have spent time with each other, it\u2019s\ndefinitely continuing to tap everyone\u2019s reserves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And patients weren\u2019t alone in worrying about the impact of a\nlong-term health crisis. Davison feared she would lose the social workers and\ntherapists in her practice if people stopped asking for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid,\nRelief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March, providing $2 trillion in\neconomic stimulus to businesses and individuals affected by COVID-19, Davison\nreceived information about small-business relief programs from WESST, a statewide\nsmall-business development and training nonprofit that helped her create a\nbusiness expansion plan in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That information supplemented what Davison learned from her\nown research on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which loaned money to\nemployers who resisted layoffs, and the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA)\nEconomic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. The more details she learned\nabout CARES Act loan provisions, the more Davison shared with her partners at\nWESST.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was pretty tough. We were so early in it, and the\napplications really did require a lot of patience and reading and resiliency. I\nspent a lot of really long days and nights reading, asking questions, and\ngetting information anywhere I could because we were so early in the process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her friends at WESST were doing the same thing and\nappreciated the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
WESST workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to pay it forward and share information with\nthem,\u201d Davison said. \u201cWESST is really good at telling us when they have\ninformation and also really good at telling us when they don\u2019t have information\nand being willing to figure it out. WESST walked alongside us and helped me see\nthat it wasn\u2019t that I just didn\u2019t know the answers. The answers weren\u2019t\ndeveloped yet. And that helped me understand that I was going to be somewhat of\na test case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davison ultimately received two COVID-related emergency\nloans: a PPP loan through an SBA-approved lender and an EIDL loan via an online\napplication. Not only has it sustained her practice, but now she and her\nleadership team hope to open a fifth office in southwest Albuquerque where\nmental-health services are scarce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get more information about WESST<\/a> and The Family Connection<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance New Mexico article 670.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the novel coronavirus pandemic reached the U.S. early this year, many patients stopped seeking in-person treatment at The Family Connection, a mental-health provider with offices in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Lunas and Santa Fe. Even though the business was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[442,444,440,443,128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10547,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions\/10547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}