Alice Lou McCoy, executive director of the New Mexico Developmental Disabilities Council, told the Legislative Health & Human Services Committee that the council’s Office of Guardianship is serving more than 1,000 state-funded guardianship cases and that roughly 6,000 people across the state are currently under guardianship or conservatorship.

McCoy said the council began the session with “over 300 on the wait list” for state-funded guardianship services and that those waiting lists and provider capacity shape how quickly applications are resolved.

The office provides court-appointed legal services for people who cannot afford private counsel, McCoy said, and applies a 200% federal poverty-level income test for state-funded assistance. She described the required legal process for establishing guardianship in New Mexico as resource-intensive: petition counsel, a guardian ad litem, and a court visitor report are typically required, and families often pay thousands of dollars for the filings and hearings. McCoy said one family she worked with previously paid more than $5,000.

McCoy described recent changes to emergency guardianship procedures aimed at preventing misuse. She said emergency guardianship no longer operates as an immediate, broadly permissive tool. Under the tightened standard, emergency guardianship requires a life-or-death level showing and a judge must explicitly approve major actions such as moving a person or selling assets. “Now you cannot get emergency guardianship unless there is a life-or-death situation,” McCoy said. She added that emergency guardianship appointments now require specific court approval before a guardian may sell assets or relocate a protected person.

The council also enforces higher certification and oversight standards for professional guardianships. McCoy said statutory changes require certified guardianship providers to follow the National Guardianship Association standards and that, since 2021, her office conducts annual comprehensive service reviews of guardian providers. The council also maintains a program of welfare visits and reported selecting at least 200 protected persons for visits each year as a minimum performance measure.

McCoy said the council pursues alternatives to guardianship when appropriate, but recognized that some people will need guardianship and that high-quality oversight and protections are necessary when guardianship is used.

Clarifying details McCoy provided to the committee included the council’s intake process, prioritization for emergency petitions (which bypass the wait list), the 200% poverty eligibility rule for state-funded legal services, the multi-professional costs required to obtain guardianship, and the council’s annual review and welfare-visit practices.

Looking forward, McCoy said the council is discussing expansion of a court-visitor pilot program with the Administrative Office of the Courts and legislative sponsors to strengthen oversight of guardianship cases. She asked legislators to consider the program’s expansion in the coming session.