NM Aging department commits to helping seniors age ‘in place' and ‘autonomously' in new draft plan
As New Mexico's population of seniors continues to grow, the state's aging department is proposing expanded initiatives to help seniors maintain their autonomy while also supporting family caregivers.
The New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department released a draft of its 2025-2029 State Plan on Aging on Thursday and is receiving feedback from the public and stakeholders through May 15. The document states that it is expected to go into effect in October 2025.
The plan details three goals to help New Mexicans age in place and reduce instances of abuse and neglect, including: administering programs to support seniors aging in their own homes, as well as their caregivers; responding to 'social determinants of health,' such as food security, housing security and access to healthcare; and reducing instances of abuse, neglect and exploitation in the state while also preserving seniors' autonomy.
According to the previous plan, more than 377,700 New Mexicans were 65 and older in 2018. This number grew to more than 391,200 in 2020 and is projected to grow by 122% by 2030, meaning more than 475,600 New Mexicans will be 65 and over. The current draft plan states that New Mexico is currently the 13th state in the U.S. with the highest percentage of population falling into this age category.
'In the past five years a lot has changed including the growth of our aging population and increased needs such as transportation access and caregiver support,' an unattributed written statement from the aging department to Source NM reads. 'The new plan strives to address these changing needs including standing up new programs like New MexiCare that support family and friend caregivers.'
The New MexiCare program provides caregivers with financial and training support to then help aging New Mexicans remain in their own homes. The program is currently available in 31 of the state's 33 counties, excepting Doña Ana and Bernalillo counties, but aging department representatives have said previously the goal is to eventually expand the program into those counties as well.
The department also noted in its statement that only an estimated 22% of the 60 and older population receive services such as home-delivered meals, congregate meals, transportation, case management, adult day care, respite services and homemaker services – all of which fall under the Older Americans Act Title III services and are provided by the Area Agencies on Aging in the state.
'The advocacy responsibilities remain a quintessential aspect of the work that ALTSD engages in daily,' the statement reads.
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USA Today
6 days ago
- USA Today
80 years later, victims of ‘first atom bomb' will soon be eligible for reparations
More Americans are now eligible for compensation for health problems linked to radiation exposure from the atomic weapons program. A bright, blinding light flashed above New Mexico's Jornada del Muerto desert at 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945. The thunderous roar that followed jolted 14-year-old Jess Gililland awake on the porch of his family's ranch 27 miles away. Gililland didn't know it yet, but the U.S. Army had just detonated the world's first-ever nuclear weapon. In the hours and days after the blast, radioactive dust would begin to coat roofs, clotheslines, crops, animals and the ground near Gililland's family home. As the years passed, almost all his family members and neighbors became sick, often with rare forms of cancer. The federal government never warned them about the bomb test, never evacuated them after the blast, or advised them about the potential health consequences of nuclear fallout. Those who lived downwind of the atom bomb say they've never received much recognition – until now. Eight decades after the Manhattan Project's Trinity Test, generations of New Mexicans' who've suffered health problems from the nuclear fallout will soon be eligible to receive compensation. A measure in the recently enacted Republican tax bill expands the pool of Americans eligible for a program that compensates people who have health problems linked to radiation exposure from the atomic weapons program, including uranium miners and downwinders. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, first passed in 1990, previously only applied to people in certain parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona, but didn't include those who were potentially impacted by the Trinity Test in New Mexico, or living on Navajo lands in Arizona, among other areas. For people in New Mexico's Tularosa Basin, the money will make a world of difference, Gililland's 71-year-old daughter, Edna Kay Hinkle, said. 'The people around here, a lot of them are really poor. They couldn't afford gas to go to Las Cruces or Albuquerque (to get treatment),' said Hinkle, who has also battled multiple types of cancer. 'There's people that it means millions, multi-millions, to them.' The Trinity Test's secret fallout Scientists chose to conduct the Trinity Test at the Alamogordo Bombing Range for the area's relative seclusion and predictable winds, which they believed would limit the spread of radiation over populated areas, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of History and Heritage. Army officers pinpointed where thousands of people lived within the 40-mile radius of the test site and prepared emergency evacuation plans. But they never used them. After the test, the military described the giant blast people saw as an accident involving ammunition and pyrotechnics. The federal government didn't reveal the real cause, even to those in the area who had watched the mushroom cloud, until a month later, when the nation dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. By then, those living near the test site had already ingested the radiated material. In a 2015 letter, a man named Henry Herrera, who was 11 years old at the time of Trinity, recounted watching a cloud of black ash fall across his town, including on the clothing his mother had hung outside to dry in the hours after the explosion. 'This filth landed all over our town (and) covered our village with radiation,' wrote Herrera, who passed away in 2022 at age 87. 'Our water was contaminated because all we had was rainwater from the cistern and ditch water. … Everything we consumed was filled with radiation.' The government publicly downplayed the potential consequences of the nuclear bomb test for people living in the Tularosa Basin, despite internal concerns. Five days after Trinity, physicist Stafford Warren wrote a letter to Army Gen. Leslie Groves explaining that high levels of radiation were found 'near a lot of houses.' Warren suggested future tests be conducted 150 miles away from any populated area. Hundreds of thousands of people lived within the 150-mile radius of Trinity. Years later, a health care provider named Kathryn Behnke wrote to Warren from Roswell, New Mexico, explaining that there were 'about 35 infant deaths' in the city in the month after the atomic test. Warren's medical assistant denied that there might be a connection to the testing in his response back to Behnke. But unpublished data from the New Mexico Health Department showed that infant deaths increased by 38% in 1945, compared with 1946, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Radioactive fallout from the test had landed in high densities across New Mexico and Nevada. Fallout from the more than 100 other nuclear tests the government conducted in the years after reached 46 of the 48 contiguous states, along with Mexico and Canada, according to a 2023 study published by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Colorado Boulder. Thousands eligible for compensation The exact number of people eligible for nuclear-weapons-related radiation compensation across the nation remains unknown. But Tina Cordova, who cofounded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said she estimates upward of 10,000 people have had health impacts related to the Trinity Test. The village of Tularosa alone could generate 'thousands of claims out of a town that has consistently had a population of around 3,000,' Cordova said, noting that generations of people who've moved away still have lingering health problems. Thousands more across other states could be eligible, too. Between 1951 and 1958, the United States conducted 188 nuclear tests out West. At the military's Nevada Test Site, 65 miles north of Las Vegas, dozens of nuclear tests were conducted underground each year between 1963 and 1992, according to the Department of Defense. During roughly the same time frame, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo Nation lands to build nuclear weapons. An estimated 4,000 Navajo labored in more than 1,000 mines, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said. Others lived in close proximity. Today, hundreds of abandoned uranium mines remain on the tribe's land and may still be polluting water sources and exposing residents to harmful radiation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Nygren called the expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act a 'victory' for the Navajo. Much like Trinity downwinders, those living on tribe lands were for decades not eligible for compensation. The original act only included people in specific counties across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah who were present when the atomic testing took place and who developed specific types of cancer. The expansion passed in the Republican tax bill extends benefits to include all downwinders in Utah, New Mexico and Idaho, and more living in Nevada, Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alaska. Uranium miners in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, South Dakota, Washington, Utah, Idaho, North Dakota, Oregon and Texas will also be covered. Bernice Gutierrez, a downwinder who was born in Carrizozo, New Mexico, eight days before the Trinity Test, believes money from the program could be an 'economic boom' for communities that have long suffered from radiation-related health impacts. But she and other downwinders have said there is still more work to be done. The RECA reauthorization leaves out people in some parts of Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Guam, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington state. The extension is also set to expire in two years, leaving concern that some won't be able to apply in time, Gutierrez said. 'Can you imagine 80 years worth of illness and death in New Mexico?' And we have a two-year time frame in which to gather all these applications?' said Gutierrez, who has more than 40 family members who've experienced what they believe to be radiation-related sicknesses. 'It just doesn't end for us' Downwinders are only eligible for compensation if they lived in one of the affected areas when tests were being conducted between 1945 and 1962. Otherwise, if an eligible person has already passed away, their families may be able to file a claim to receive up to $25,000. The National Cancer Institute in 2020 said it found no evidence transgenerational health effects occurred as a result of the test. The study also said there remain 'great uncertainty in the estimates of radiation doses and number of cancer cases possibly attributable to the test.' But Cordova and other downwinders believe the radiation from the blast mutated their ancestors' DNA, making their children and grandchildren more susceptible to cancers and other diseases. Five generations of Cordova's family have had cancer, dating back to 1955. Her 24-year-old niece was the latest to be diagnosed this year. 'It just doesn't end for us.' Cordova said. 'I always say we bury somebody, and someone else is diagnosed. And that is true and has been true in my family forever.' One of her cousins was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor several decades ago, and traveled around the country to find treatment. He died in October of compounding health problems. Two months later, Cordova said her brother was diagnosed with cancer. 'This is a legacy that we will carry forever. Our bodies bear the remnants of the Trinity bomb.'
Axios
10-07-2025
- Axios
Trinity Test-area residents to finally get reparations 80 years later
New Mexicans impacted by the Trinity Test are getting closer to receiving compensation after eight decades of health problems and rare cancers stemming from the world's first atomic explosion. The big picture: President Trump's recently signed the "big, beautiful bill," which includes an extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and, for the first time, covers victims of the Trinity Test. The inclusion comes after the victims fought for acknowledgement and reparations over multiple generations. It also comes before the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test, which is next week. Zoom in: Under the extension and inclusion, Trinity victims can apply for $100,000 for damages caused by the 1945 bomb test that helped end World War II. RECA, which awarded financial reparations to people who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site, ended last year but has now been renewed for two years thanks to pressure from Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) The law was originally passed in 1990, but Hispanic residents and Mescalero Apache tribal members, who were next to the 1945 Trinity Test, were never included. Descendants have suffered from rare cancers for generations. Yes, but: The recently passed legislation gutting Medicaid covers many residents in New Mexico, including Trinity victims. The RECA expansion also does not include eligibility for people near Nuclear testing in the U.S. territory of Guam, parts of Arizona, Montana, Colorado and new parts of Nevada. What they're saying: "The two-year extension will not be long enough for us to get everybody enrolled that should be enrolled, and the health care coverage was stripped out," Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said on a call with reporters Thursday. Cordova said she was still grateful and relieved New Mexicans were finally added and that her group will continue to fight for Medicaid restorations. Luján said he's hopeful that his Republican colleagues in the Senate will work with him to reserve some of the Medicaid cuts. "I want to recognize the leadership of Sen. Hawley when we had a chance to begin working on this over the last couple of years." Context: On July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert, the U.S. Army detonated an atomic bomb developed at the then-secret community of Los Alamos as part of the World War II-era Manhattan Project. The bomb exploded at 5:29am, and its thunderous roar knocked people from breakfast tables in the historic Hispanic village of Tularosa and sent Mescalero Apache Reservation residents into hiding. Following the test in the Jornada del Muerto desert near Alamogordo, residents often picnicked at the site and took artifacts, including the radioactive green glass known as "trinitite." Residents only learned about the Trinity Test after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The bomb's aftermath later caused rare forms of cancer for many of the 30,000 people and their descendants in the area surrounding Trinity. Poor Hispanic residents and Mescalero Apache tribal members held bake sales to pay for cancer treatments. The intrigue: Downwinders received renewed public interest in 2023 following the release of the blockbuster "Oppenheimer," directed by Christopher Nolan. The movie follows American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer as his team races to create the atomic bomb, but it overlooks the aftermath on the people of New Mexico. What we're watching: The U.S. Justice Department is advising the public to wait "for further guidance" before filing a claim, noting on its website that the bill was only recently signed into law.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Heat of the Moment
Oakley Blasdel, a registered nurse with Albuquerque nonprofit Health Care for the Homeless, examines a patient during summer outreach. Providers and experts are worried about hotter temperatures and greater risk for unhoused New Mexicans. (Courtesy of Health Care for the Homeless / Sara Lucero) High heat can impact anyone's health, but new research shows people experiencing homelessness face increased risk. Dr. Taylor Weckstein, a graduate of Harvard medical school, last year worked for several weeks in residency at the Indian Health Services in Shiprock, New Mexico. Her work included outreach trips in triple-degree weather. She saw people experience burns from concrete, severe dehydration and heat stroke, and the experience stayed with her. 'After seeing the suffering of some of the patients, I thought it would be really important to try and have data to look at these really stark health implications,' Weckstein told Source. On June 9, the Journal of the American Medical Association published research Weckstein co-authored based on national emergency room visitation data in 2021 and 2022, which found homeless people visited emergency rooms for heat illness or injury at a rate 27 times higher than other people. While Weckstein expected homeless individuals to face greater exposure rates, the stark disparity surprised her. 'Heat stroke and heat-related-illness are preventable conditions and it's pretty tragic that all those individuals are exposed to such dangerous levels of heat because there's a lack of affordable housing,' Weckstein said. 'As we're trying to combat climate change, we need to consider which populations are most affected and how we can advocate for human-centered policies to protect those who are at greatest risk.' Weckstein said further research is needed to better understand the scope of the issue and possibly break it out into regional trends. 'If anything, this research probably was an undercount of the magnitude of the problem,' Weckstein said, noting researchers only tracked heat-illness specific codes, and didn't capture how extreme heat worsens kidney or heart conditions. The study comes as New Mexico braces for a hot weekend — and rising temperatures in the years to come. 'As we're trying to combat climate change, we need to consider which populations are most affected and how we can advocate for human-centered policies to protect those who are at greatest risk.' – — Dr. Taylor Weckstein Dangerously hot temperatures forecasted in the coming days have nonprofit advocates and providers bracing for 'life or death' impacts to unhoused people in New Mexico's largest cities. Advocates said governments at all levels need policies, funding and data to better address the threat. According to the National Weather Service Heat Risk Map, Albuquerque this weekend could hit triple-digit temperatures for the first time this year, and Las Cruces highs are projected to reach 103 and 104 degrees for several days, with nighttime temperatures hovering at 70 degrees — making it harder for the body to cool off. Local New Mexico officials said they're monitoring for heat threats and ready to take action during extreme heat. But it's the overall hotter temperatures as a result of climate change that pose a continued threat, not just triple-digit days, said Nathaniel Matthews-Trigg, a board member for nonprofit Healthy Climate New Mexico. 'In New Mexico when the temperature reaches 90 degrees, we see emergency visits increase for heat, so really, any time you're getting into the 90s, there is a risk,' Matthews-Trigg said. Rio Rancho, Albuquerque and Las Cruces recently topped a USA Today analysis of cities with the largest increase of high-heat days — 90 degrees and upward — since 1985: 39, 36 and 31 more such days, respectively. Matthews-Trigg said rising heat threats, particularly for unsheltered people with substance use disorders and mental illness, mean that cities need to do more to offer cooler spaces, water and support. 'All of those organizations that are working with those most vulnerable, we need to bring them in on the conversation and really intentionally plan,' he said. 'We can't just leave it for the emergency to occur and then we do something; we have to be proactive, rather than reactive.' Local officials in Albuquerque and Las Cruces told Source they are monitoring the heat risk situation this weekend, but as of Wednesday did not plan to extend cooling center hours, unless a power outage or further needs arise. 'When it's very hot, it has life or death implications for people living on the street.' – — Rachel Biggs, chief strategy officer for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless Doña Ana Assistant County Manager Steven Lopez said recent temperatures have not reached a threshold of 105 degrees on the heat index, also known as the 'feels like' temperature. The county requires those high temperatures for several days to provide additional cooling sites, he said. Outreach teams, which deliver water, hygiene kits, food and other supplies will be out late on Friday to 'help people get stocked up' for the weekend, according to Nicole Martinez, the executive director with Mesilla Valley Community of Hope in Las Cruces. Community of Hope operates an outdoor tent-shelter area, adding more shaded areas and misters. Martinez described a couple of close calls, with people overheating in the courtyard. 'It seems like we're constantly assessing for heat exposure,' she said. In Albuquerque, which the USA Today report described as 'one of the hottest places in the country,' city officials emphasized long-term goals to address heat, such as planting more trees to increase shade and the ordinance requiring landlords to ensure rental units have cooling systems. Services for homeless residents include increased outreach with delivery of water and supplies, along with increased referrals and transportation to city and nonprofit-run shelters, said Matthew Whelan, the deputy chief administrative officer at the city. 'When there's extreme weather, it is always a concern for everyone in the city, but absolutely folks that are experiencing homelessness or at the top of that list,' said City of Albuquerque spokesperson Staci Drangmeister. 'The city has moved away from opening up temporary cooling centers, as we have built out some more permanent infrastructure to support people and keep people out of the elements.' Access to the Gateway Center, located on the far Westside, presents a hurdle for people spread throughout the city, said Rachel Biggs, chief strategy officer for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, a nonprofit that offers health care for unhoused people. 'I think there's still a need beyond what the shelter is able to provide,' Biggs said. 'Especially during these really challenging times when it's very hot, it has life or death implications for people living on the street.' Biggs said Albuquerque could learn from Arizona's responses to extreme heat and homelessness. She pointed to that state's strategy of prepositioning supplies before heat events. More water, towels and multiple cool-down areas required additional funding and resources, but the strategy contributed to lower heat deaths in Arizona last year for the first time in decades. Better responses for heat impacts such as education on heat safety, along with distributing sunscreen, water and protective clothing, help triage, but fail to address the root problem. 'We have the solution,' Biggs said. 'It's housing. If we all come together at all levels of government working together to provide access to affordable housing for everyone that needs it, we will see an impact on our health systems, on mortality.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
