Three New Mexico agencies conducted in-person wellness checks on more than 1,000 clients being cared for under the state’s Developmental Disabilities Waiver (DD Waiver) programs to ensure clients are being well cared for by providers.
More than 75 employees of the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH), Aging and Long-Term Services Department (ALTSD) and the Human Services Department (HSD) conducted the checks to ensure the clients are in good health and receiving proper service and benefits.
According to program administrators, the checks will continue until each of the 6,000 clients under the DD Wavier programs is assessed in person.
The action comes after the DOH terminated the contract of four providers for alleged cases of extreme abuse and neglect of clients. The client has died in three cases though these deaths are not definitively tied to the alleged abuse, according to a release from the governor's office.
“My message is this: If you are in a position of caring for a developmentally disabled adult and you abuse that responsibility, take note, because we are coming for you,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in the release. “We are using every tool at our disposal to protect these vulnerable individuals and to make sure that incidents of abuse, neglect and exploitation do not happen ever again in our state.”
Eight more potential incidents of alleged abuse and neglect were discovered by the three agencies during the wellness checks. These are also being investigated.
“The uncomfortable truth is that being disabled makes someone more vulnerable to abuse,” DOH Secretary Patrick Allen said in the release. “All of us have to do more to better serve the disabled community.”
An independent third-party investigation is also being conducted to evaluate the DOH Developmental Disabilities Division (DDSD) and the DOH Division of Health Improvement (DHI) procedures. The investigation is being conducted to determine systemic flaws that allowed the alleged incidents to occur, per the release.
The governor has made it a priority to improve how the state serves and protects those with developmental disabilities. Secretary Katrina Hotrum-Lopez from the Aging and Long-Term Services Department is the acting director at DDSD and head of an internal investigation of the DDSD and DHI to improve internal processes around abuse and neglect. She will continue to serve as the secretary of ALTSD.
“We are shifting the focus of oversight from paper and process reviews to client-centered quality of care,” Hotrum-Lopez said in the release. “This shift will allow us to focus more directly on protecting clients from abuse and neglect as well as reviewing the quality of investigations, complaint resolutions and ensuring timeliness of response. It is not OK for us to do the minimum; our vulnerable populations deserve more.”