By: Ernest Gurulé
Before heading off to work, Lily Griego must often make one quick stop before getting to the office.
That stop is Denver International Airport (DEN) where she might be flying off to any one of the seven different states that she regularly visits. Of course, when her job doesn’t require her to fly, she’s driving across Colorado to check in with the leaders of scores of cities and towns to make certain her agency is meeting constituent needs.
Griego, Regional Director of the Department of Health and Human Services Region 8 since last September, works with governors, mayors, county commissioners and tribal leaders as the official representative of Secretary of Health and Human Services, Javier Becerra.
The mission of Griego’s agency is no small undertaking. HHS is in business to maintain or enhance the overall health and well-being of all Americans, all 330-plus million of us. And the affable Griego, a career-long civil servant, takes her work seriously.
Over the last nearly three years, Griego, while doing her job, has had to deal with a pandemic—COVID-19— that her agency was charged with managing. In the case of COVID, there was no blueprint. And while there were a number of fits and starts, in the end, the virus, thanks to an extraordinary effort by HHS, was brought under control. The only comparable national health emergency in recent times was 1918’s Great Influenza. And while it was inarguably a devastating and often overwhelming challenge, COVID was different.
As COVID swept across the land, Griego, like so many others, often could not make the physical appearances she might have wanted to make. “Meeting face-to-face,” she said, “is worth their weight in gold.” But with a deadly virus, the safest option was meeting via Zoom.
And while HHS is still not ready to call COVID over, it is today a virus that the nation and the world now understand.
It is now, at least, under control. But when you work for an agency whose mission is health, said Griego, there is always something else to keep you focused.
HHS and the nation have for the last several years been dealing with an opioid crisis that has quite literally devasted scores of communities, many of whom Griego has visited and seen exactly how they have been ravaged. The U.S. government estimates that since 1999, nearly a million men and women have died of drug overdoses.
While the focus of the drug-induced wreckage has been in the small towns that dot the ‘Rest Belt,’ it has also been felt sharply on tribal lands, many of which are in Griego’s Region 8. But drugs and drug abuse are not the only matters that warrant attention on reservation lands, said Griego.
“They have issues that are not only native,” she said, “they have historical trauma.” Listening to tribal leaders, Griego said, is vital and the exact kind of information that needs to be taken back to Washington.
Griego, while careful not to elevate tribal health issues over others, does acknowledge that there are serious and often unseen health challenges facing Native Americans.
“Health equity is what we’re working on right now,” she said, including mental health issues. “If we have policy and mandates from tribal leaders that gives us guidance.”
Griego said she is proud of President Biden and the attention and priority he has made of mental health. When he gave the State of the Union address, she said, one of the things he did was directly address thi issue and promise a ‘health tour’ across the country. For her, it was a signal to direct her energy toward fulfilling the President’s commitment across her Region 8. ”I’ve done a maternal mental health round table in Utah and North Dakota,” she said.
”We’re also looking at the San Luis Valley, at Adams State (University) and at the agricultural population.” As firmly as she can, Griego said, “We are going to talk about it.”
Part of Griego’s prioritizing of mental health comes from her own experience growing up in southern Colorado and Wyoming. “Being Latina,” she said, “I’m comfortable saying this…we did not grow up talking about it.” Griego said few ever broached the subject. She said the issue was talked around, “we had to be strong…we had to pull ourselves up.” Mental health cannot be beaten through silence, she said. “We need to break down the stigma of what mental health is about.”
The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain tribes, both located in southwestern Colorado, regularly meet with Colorado’s Lieutenant Governor, Dianne Primavera, along with HHS to discuss issues important to Native Americans. In addition to the opioid/substance abuse and mental health issues, said Griego, a lot of time is spent addressing maternal health a serious health concern “which deeply impacts native women.”
HHS, she said, is always responding to ‘five-alarm’ health issues. Some are clearly visible, as is the case with drug abuse, others are not immediately identifiable like mental health. But, said Griego, there is always something on the horizon that poses an existential health challenge.
The latest national health emergency is a Monkeypox outbreak that has mushroomed into a public health concern.
“It’s extremely serious,” Griego said. “It really underscores our stakeholders engagement and what local populations need to address.” “One of the messages that we can deliver is the importance of getting vaccinated.”
Griego is a career-long public servant having experience in both local and federal agencies. In 2020, she worked for the U.S. Census, leading a number of state teams that helped ensure a timely and accurate official count. She is a native Coloradan with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a graduate degree in history from the University of Colorado at Denver.
