Agency moves to shut down ‘archaic’ facility and attitudes
Just over a month into his job as the Cabinet secretary of the state’s child welfare agency, Brian Blalock faced headlines announcing a new lawsuit alleging a 7-yearold boy in state custody had suffered sexual abuse by older children at a mental health facility.
The allegations stem from incidents in 2017 — about the time when, officials say, the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department began investigating Albuquerque-based Desert Hills, a treatment center and group home for ages 5 to 18.
The facility, home to scores of children, had been operating under closer scrutiny and a plan to correct problems jeopardizing the safety of children living there, Blalock and other CYFD officials said. But Desert Hills, operated by a global health care firm called Acadia, had not met the require-
ments. Conditions worsened in recent weeks, prompting an emergency response.
“We felt like we could not take the risk of kids getting hurt,” said J. Kate Girard, chief counsel for CYFD, who stepped into the position Monday.
The agency has begun a monthslong process of shutting down Desert Hills, in collaboration with Acadia and managed care organizations. Another health care firm will be brought in, through a contract with Acadia, to monitor the process until Acadia’s state license to operate the facility expires April 1.
“But of course we are not going to drop kids on the street,” Girard said. “We know we can find them better beds.”
Late last week, Desert Hills had about 60 remaining children, she said.
Officials began interviewing children and examining records, Blalock said. “What we found is that a lot of kids didn’t need that level of care” and should not have been housed at the facility, which he called “archaic.”
It was a tough introduction to his new job. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has tasked Blalock with overhauling a troubled department with more than 2,600 employees and a mission of protecting the state’s most vulnerable children and teens.
The governor has proposed a $36 million increase for the department in the next fiscal year, which begins in July, bringing the budget to $316 million. About $18.5 million of the new money would be for an expansion of prekindergarten programs. Nearly $4 million would pay for 102 new positions in the Child Protective Services Division, and $2 million would increase home-visiting services for pregnant mothers and families with new babies.
“The governor wants intense, thorough reform at CYFD,” said the governor’s spokesman, Tripp Stelnicki, “which includes a dramatic transformation of attitude. … The state can and will do better, much better, and our vulnerable kids will be secure.”
Ensuring each child in the state’s custody is placed in the most appropriate care is one of Blalock’s four broadstroke goals for reforming the agency — and is perhaps the most urgent to address. His other goals go hand in
hand with proper placement of children: preventing abuse, neglect, foster care and homelessness; proper staffing; and a data-driven effort to “optimize the department.”
“We need to hire,” he said. “Not just bodies, but we have to hire the right people and give them support.”
The Desert Hills crisis was an eyeopener. The department needs to ensure it’s properly monitoring such facilities, Blalock said, “because we’re the parent of those kids when they go into these facilities.”
Kids should grow up in “settings that look as family-like as possible,” he said, “even kids who are not able to be with parents.”
In cases in which children must be removed from their parents, “We have to navigate in a way that we’re always thinking long term,” he said. “We don’t want to do it in a way that we’re retraumatizing the kids.”
In a state with the nation’s highest rate of child poverty — a problem at the root of most cases of abuse and neglect — Blalock said he sees a pressing need for his agency to expand its reach into communities.
He believes it should be offering a higher level of support to struggling families — including an increasing number of grandparents who are raising grandchildren and even greatgrandchildren.
He plans to make a big push to aid relatives raising children on their own, outside the formal foster care system, most of whom have little access to additional funding and aren’t receiving other wraparound services, such as Medicaid, food and mental health care for children who may have suffered trauma.
Relatives raising children who aren’t their own should be able to request the help of a caseworker, he said, and have a choice of becoming formal foster parents or federally subsidized guardians.
Included in what’s known as kinship care should be anyone a child or teen identifies as a relative and is aiding in the child’s care — a godparent, a grandparent, a coach, a minister: “Let’s work with everybody.”
“Ideally,” Blalock said, “what we want is Grandma to reach out with no fear; we listen to Grandma and the youth.”
But such initiatives require workers and money.
Blalock said filling vacant positions in the agency and adding 102 positions would address part of the need. Lujan Grisham’s budget also includes $500,000 to boost support services for grandparents and other relatives raising kids.
Now, he said, about 22 percent of the children in New Mexico’s foster care system are living with relatives. He would like to see that increase to at least 40 percent or 45 percent.
Blalock acknowledged there are barriers to break and fears to overcome. Many struggling families strive to avoid the radar of the state’s social workers.
“It’s going to take time and partnerships in the community,” he said. “…
In a state with the nation’s highest rate of child poverty — a problem at the root of most cases of abuse and neglect — Blalock said he sees a pressing need for his agency to expand its reach into communities.
I know how to do it, but I don’t know why it’s not happening better, in a more uniform way.” Attitudes also must change within the agency, according to Blalock, the goverreview of the agency by Lujan Grisham’s transition team. The docuitten ment, written before the new governor took office, cites “low morale and a cular” ture of fear" among CYFD workers and a “punitive culture toward families.” “We can’t have a culture of fear where we’re worried about making decisions ,” Blalock said. “… When you make a decision that’s right, we’re going to celebrate it.” At the same time, he said, “If we get that call wrong, we can have dire consequences.”
Part of building a supportive environment, where young workers are eager to remain on the job long term, will involve hiring more experienced staff to serve as mentors to younger caseworkers, Blalock said.
He’s optimistic about rebuilding the staff, in part, because working with kids is “amazing,” he said.
“For anyone else who thinks that sounds like an amazing job, we need them,” he said, “and we need to provide the training and support for them to want to come to work and to find that work awesome.”