NM Developmental Disabilities Planning Council
Office of Guardianship
Program Description: The NM Office of Guardianship provides a statewide, publicly funded guardianship services program for guardians of “last resort” to incapacitated income and resource eligible adults.We also provide Mental Health Treatment Guardians for appointment by the courts.
Our clients include adults with a primary diagnosis of a mental defect due to a disease process or congenital defect (for example: a developmental disability, traumatic brain injury, behavioral health disorder, dementia or other related conditions) that affects the adjudicated incapacitated person’s ability and capacity to care for him/herself.
Program Function: Our Office of Guardianship provides contracts for “Corporate Guardians” and for legal services. Legal services for guardianship court proceedings include Petitioning Attorney, Guardian Ad Litem (GAL), and Court Visitor. We also contract with the National Alliance for Mental Illness for making treatment guardians available to the courts state-wide.
Income and Resource Eligible: the alleged incapacitated person must be financially eligible for institutional Medicaid (income does not exceed 225% of the federal poverty level (2008 Poverty Guidelines), and countable resources cannot exceed $2,000.00 (Burial accounts up to $1,540.00 are not included). For legal services, where the proposed guardian is not a contracted service provider, the proposed guardian’s household gross income must not exceed 300% ofthe federal poverty level.
Relation to the larger agency of DDPC: The NM Office of Guardianship is under the NM Developmental Disabilities Planning Council. The guardianship program only relates to the appointment of guardians as decision-makers for mentally incapacitated adults.
Five members of the Guardianship Committee for the DDPC Council are official members of our Guardianship Council (GC) established to advise and assist our office, including re: policies, rules, procedures, roles, complaint trends, legislative changes, quality assurance, training, and feedback. [Elizabeth Thomson, Colin Holmes, Terri McCaslin, Dianne Griego, and Jim Jackson]. We also extend an invitation to all Council members to attend our monthly GC meetings (April 18th).
We need your help! We need help with performing responsibilities in guardianship court proceedings for:
- Petitioning Attorney,
- Guardian Ad Litem (GAL), and
- Court Visitor
Our need is particularly in Judicial Districts 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12. Our cases are generally uncontested. We receive desperate pleas for help from caregivers, and others are critically dependant on our role, including health professionals, Interdisciplinary Team, other attorney, court visitor, the court, and others.
The compensation under these contracts is a flat fee per case, inclusive of all services required for that role, as follows:
- petitioning attorney - flat fee of $600.00 per case;
- guardian ad litem (GAL)- a flat fee of $300.00 per case
- court visitor - up to $150.00 per case, if no other source of payment is available.
The flat fee includes any gross receipts tax imposed on contractor, and there may be reimbursement for travel expenses.
To download PDFs of Office of Guardianship forms click here.