This organization is horrible. A portion of the people don't know what they're doing. Very woke organization. My son has disabilities and very good insurance. Their billing practices are in favor to them. For billing people are incompetent and don't know how to submit bills to insurance companies to get paid so in turn they bill my son for the full amount. There's a very large turnover with the team Builders organization. My son is on disability and cannot afford their High billing prices. So what they do is they call other family members to try to get paid. The director of the organization says one thing and promises you one thing but it never gets done. So you be the judge whether you want to do business with these people or not. A very concerned father for his son's Mental Health.
As a former employee of approximately 3 years, I can state from personal experience that the owners were in it for the money. They routinely and constantly "encouraged" over-billing of services, from increasing travel times to "rounding-up" counseling hours. As kids in care reached their funding limits, they suddenly would find themselves "substantially improved." Their pay structure was horrible, staff support nearly non-existent, and they actually expected workers to provide their own office furniture and to clean their own offices. This on top of exceedingly poor training of staff, foster parents, and so forth. Many of the people hired did not meet the minimum requirements of their positions, but were able to get in, stay in, and receive advancements, according to their personal relationships to the owners--including their ability to "look the other way". In my opinion, the owners were very high-functioning criminals who found easy money in the form of privatized, (supposedly) non-profit human services. Any relief or benefits clients received was due to the exceedingly long hours, true concern, and extraordinary efforts of a handful of truly qualified staff.
I am a former employee of TeamBuilders Counseling Services. I spent 6 years in operations oversight of multiple behavioral health programs in rural communities of NM. TeamBuilders is a very unique agency for several key reasons. First, the clinical model and clinical leadership that drives the agency is certainly a standout, to say the least, across the New Mexico landscape and across the country. The Chief Clinical Officer at the helm is among the most decorated behavioral health clinicians on the North American continent. Under this clinical leadership, the agency was able to achieve exemplary standing on performance audits, conducted by the state of NM, across multiple programs for several years running. An astonishing fete, and not one that has been matched to the same degree by any other agency in the state.
The second key separator of TeamBuilders from other agencies like it is the unity, loyalty and comradery found among the staff across the state. The employees would describe themselves as family and the overall reported job satisfaction stats on the inside of the agency are an unusual find in the behavioral health industry, an industry with the reputation of being very hard on service staff which results in exceptionally high turnover. The culture is born of the founders themselves, the CEO and his wife the Chief Clinical Officer; together they put the TEAM in TeamBuilders and cultivated a following of immensely dedicated and driven individuals carrying out the mission and vision established at the original incorporation 18 years ago.
The third hallmark of TeamBuilders Counseling Services is ongoing training and staff development. My background is business and I came to the agency right out of Corporate America from Fortune 500 companies that could not touch the quality of supervision, training and leadership development I received here.
Community outreach and unconditional client care are the final key features that set TeamBuilders apart from everyone else. The agency is well known in all youth serving circles in more than 22 counties of New Mexico as champions for the communities they serve—giving back to each community by supporting other youth serving agencies, heading up food and supply drives and ensuring that families are linked to all available support resources in their communities in order to promote resilience, recovery and hope for families impacted by poverty, substance abuse and mental illness.
TeamBuilders was forced to close its doors in August 2013 by the state of New Mexico amid allegations of fraud that remain under investigation by the attorney general’s office. Latest update on the investigation from this office was that they were not finding credible allegations of fraud. That being said, what a loss for New Mexico. What a loss for the children and their families and for the staff…a family all their own. Overall, an outstanding place to work. Beautiful memories, immense personal and professional growth. I take it all with me and will pay it forward in all my future endeavors.
I started working in the behavioral health and substance abuse prevention field in 1974 when I was 17 years old. Since then I have worked for many wonderful agencies in Colorado and New Mexico. Over the past 6 years I was the Behavior Management Program Coordinator the the Espanola/Los Alamos communities. Any great organization starts with the leadership at the top. I must say that Shannon and Lorraine Freedle in my 38 years of service are the best in this business. Their commitment to children and families and their compassion for those hurting or in trouble is unmatched. I would still be there if the state of New Mexico hadn't come in to willfully destroy this sacred place.
William High Eagle Sandoval
I have close friends with a troubled teen. He was adopted as a young teen from a succession of foster homes, some of them probably abusive, and he's just had the toughest time -- and as a consequence, so have my friends. He's been arrested (for petty vandalism, public drunkenness...so far), he's run away (made it to a neighboring state, and lived briefly with other homeless types), acts up at school and at home. The only outfit that has made any difference is TeamBuilders. I believe it has a lot to do with their "ecological" approach -- where they address every factor that can influence a child's behavior. The parents joined the therapy, which helped them as well, and at least he's back attending school consistently. I very much admire the flexibility of TeamBuilders in applying whatever specific therapeutic modality that works -- from a very wide range -- and their dedication to even very difficult cases, when state and even private resources have essentially given up.