NM P&A's 20th Anniversary
Protection and Advocacy of New Mexico celebrated
its 20th anniversary in style with a dance and dinner at the University
of New Mexico's south golf course clubhouse with more than 125 guests.
A silent auction headed by Lisa Schatz brought in more than $850. Among
the treasured auction items were balloon fiesta rides, spa adventures, and
handmade art work.
The festivities began with P&A's historic events embellished by prominent
past and present P&A employees and Board members.
:Jim Jackson, the initial single employee and current executive director
of P&A described the beginning efforts in 1979 with the establishment
of P&A out of his home.
Some of the highlights over the years included:
One of the first due process hearings for P&A took place in 1982, when
the Gallup-McKinley County School District refused to provide special education
services to Native American children in a local nursing home. The hearing
lasted for a week, but resulted in a precedent-setting ruling that all school-aged
children, regardless of the severity of their disability, were entitled
to educational services.
In 1983, when the administration chose not to apply for the Medicaid waiver
program authorized by Congress, P&A and other groups persuaded the legislature
to pass Senate Bill 123, requiring an application by the state. P&A
was appointed to the task force that developed the initial applications
for the DD and the D&E waivers.
P&A and The ARC of New Mexico combined efforts in 1984 to get the legislature
to pass a bill requiring the state to participate in the federal special
education program. New Mexico was the last state in the country to apply
for funds under P.L. 94-142, now known as IDEA. P&A also teamed up with
Parents Reaching Out and two extraordinary parents, Loretta Armenta and
Tammy West, to convince the legislature to create the Medically Fragile
Children's program. By designation of Governor Toney Anaya, P&A began
a new Client Assistance Program to assist clients and applicants of Vocational
Rehabilitation services.
In 1985, with a grant from the DD Planning Council, P&A coordinated
a state-wide project called "Special Kids", that resulted in the
legislature passing HB 47 to lower the school age to 3 years old for children
with disabilities.
Testimony by three New Mexicans helped convince Congress to pass the Protection
and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act in 1986,
thereby expanding the Protection and Advocacy
services to include persons with mental illness. Within 6 months P&A
opened a satellite office in Las Vegas, NM.
In 1987, after years of unsuccessfully pursuing other solutions, P&A
teamed up with several local attorneys and the Public Interest Law Center
of Philadelphia and filed the lawsuit that became known as Jackson v. Fort
Stanton. The lawsuit sought improvements in institutional conditions and
community placements for those for whom it was appropriate. The state hired
a high-priced, out-of-state law firm to vigorously fight the case.
Violations of the rights of residents at the Las Vegas Medical Center in
1989 led P&A to file the Robbins v. Buddke lawsuit. Judge Mechem's order
clarified the cresidents'communication rights and set a nationally important
precedent securing the right of P&A agencies to access and provide information
to facility residents. In other related actions P&A convinced the legislature
to amend the Probate Code to provide for limited guardianships. During the
same year and with support from the State Department of Education, P&A
began an outreach and support program for minority families that led to
the establishment of Fiesta Educativa and, in later years, El Poder de la
Famila.
The lengthy trial in the Jackson case was completed in the spring of 1990.
On the last work day of the year, Judge James Parker issued his ruling,
finding violations of the constitutional and statutory rights of the residents
of Fort Stanton and Los Lunas. His order set in motion a long series of
events over the next 10 years which, with P&A's involvement, would completely
transform the state's developmental disabilities service system.
1990 was also the year that the HIV/AIDS advocacy project began at P&A.
It started as a pilot project, and then for 5 years was supported by a federal
grant under the Ryan White Care Act. 1990 also marked the beginning of a
three year project to develop a self-determination curriculum for high school
students with disabilities.
Neighbors attempted to keep a group home for persons with mental illness
from opening in a residential neighborhood of Albuquerque in 1991. P&A
intervention allowed the home to open and continue operating. In the same
year, the threat of legal action by P&A led the state Public Defender
to commit to the creation of a Mental Health Unit to focus resources and
expertise on the needs of mentally ill people in the criminal justice system.
In 1992, P&A filed a lawsuit to stop a state plan to reduce Medicaid
benefits. The cuts were avoided, and the state's public hearing process
was also found to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Accommodations
are now routinely offered to persons with disabilities in state hearings.
Santa Fe District Court Judge Art Encinias stated that people with disabilities
must no longer be treated as if they were invisible. Also in 1992, P&A
began a five year project in support of a state-wide mental health consumer
coalition.
In 1993, P&A convinced the legislature to pass a comprehensive Bill
of Rights for persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, the bill was vetoed
by the Governor, but similar protections were later issued as regulations
by the Department of Health. Advocacy by P&A and others led to the beginnings
of a diversion project that provided treatment at UNM Mental Health Center
for mentally ill inmates of the Bernalillo County Detention Center.
P&A went to the state Supreme Court to protect the rights of persons
with AIDS to live in a small care home in the Four Hills subdivision of
Albuquerque in 1994. The Supreme Court ruling upheld our clients and set
a valuable precedent applying the Fair Housing Act to persons with disabilities
in New Mexico.
In 1995, the last resident of Fort Stanton Hospital and Training School
moved into the community and the facility was closed. This left only one
large institution for people with DD in the state. Also in 1995, P&A
brought a legal challenge, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that
successfully stopped the state's plans to eliminate the General Assistance
program.
P&A advocacy in 1996 stopped a state effort to move juveniles with mental
health problems out of the Boys School and into a dilapidated building at
YDDC and then into the Dona Ana County Detention Center. Eventually the
youth were moved to an appropriate facility.
P&A partnered with a private law firm to file a lawsuit against the
state Lottery Authority, leading to a settlement improving access to the
numerous businesses around the state that sell lottery tickets.
In 1997, the Los Lunas Hospital and Training School closed. New Mexico became
the first western state to eliminate the use of large state facilities.
Through intensive advocacy by P&A staff, virtually all the former residents
were placed into family scale residential settings with individual supports
and services. As a result of the Jackson lawsuit, New Mexico has become
a national leader in some service areas, and now has one of the best supported
community service systems in the country.
Renewed focus by P&A in 1998 convinced the Human Services Department
to revise its long-standing position and clarify that augmentative communication
devices and other Assistive Technology devices for adults with disabilities
are covered under the Medicaid program. Also in 1998, P&A worked through
Health Action New Mexico to secure passage by the state legislature of the
Patient Protection Act, which was then signed into law, minus the appropriation
and the ombudsman program, by the Governor.
In 1999, P&A went to court to try to save the life of an adult with
mental retardation when his family chose to withdraw his food and water
even though he did not have a terminal illness. In the long run we were
unsuccessful, but raised awareness of how substitute decision-making can
threaten the rights of persons with disabilities. Also in 1999, P&A
teamed up with The ARC of New Mexico to file a lawsuit over the lengthy
waiting list for the Disabled and Elderly and the Developmental Disabilities
Medicaid waiver programs. The legislature appropriated $7.5 million in new
money to meet some of the need, the largest single increase in history.
The anniversary dinner party ended with a dance and reminiscing alongside
the bulletin boards filled with collages of past P&A newsletters, pictures,
articles,and other memorabalia.