As used in the Adult Protective Services Act:

A. "ability to consent" means an adult's ability to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of proposed protective services or protective placement, including benefits, risks and alternatives to the proposed services or placement and to make or communicate an informed decision;

B. "abuse" means:

(1) knowingly, intentionally or negligently and without justifiable cause inflicting physical pain, injury or mental anguish;

(2) the intentional deprivation by a caretaker or other person of services necessary to maintain the mental and physical health of an adult; or

(3) sexual abuse, including criminal sexual contact, incest and criminal sexual penetration;

C. "adult" means a person eighteen years of age or older;

D. "caretaker" means a facility, provider or individual that has assumed the responsibility for the care of an adult;

E. "conservator" means a person who is appointed by a court to manage the property or financial affairs, or both, of an incapacitated adult;

F. "court" means the district court having jurisdiction;

G. "department" means the aging and long-term services department;

H. "emergency" means that an adult is living in conditions that present a substantial risk of death or immediate and serious physical harm to the adult or others;

I. "exploitation" means an unjust or improper use of an adult's money or property for another person's profit or advantage, pecuniary or otherwise;

J. "facility" means a hospital, nursing home, residential care facility, group home, foster care home, assisted living facility or other facility licensed by the state, but does not include a jail, prison or detention facility;

K. "guardian" means a person who has qualified to provide for the care, custody or control of an incapacitated adult pursuant to testamentary or court appointment, but excludes one who is a guardian ad litem;

L. "incapacitated adult" means any adult with a mental, physical or developmental condition that substantially impairs the adult's ability to provide adequately for the adult's own care or protection;

M. "multidisciplinary team" means a team composed of diverse professionals who meet periodically to consult on or enhance appropriate community responses to abuse, neglect or exploitation of adults;

N. "neglect" means the failure of the caretaker of an adult to provide for the basic needs of the adult, such as clothing, food, shelter, supervision and care for the physical and mental health of that adult; "neglect" includes self-neglect;

O. "protected adult" means an adult for whom a guardian or conservator has been appointed or other protective order has been made or an abused, neglected or exploited adult who has consented to protective services or protective placement;

P. "protective placement" means the placement of an adult with a provider or in a facility or the transfer of an adult from one provider or facility to another;

Q. "protective services" means the services furnished by the department or its delegate, as described in Section 27-7-21 NMSA 1978;

R. "provider" means a private-residence or health care worker or an unlicensed residential or nonresidential entity that provides personal, custodial or health care;

S. "self-neglect" means an act or omission by an incapacitated adult that results in the deprivation of essential services or supports necessary to maintain the incapacitated adult's minimal mental, emotional or physical health and safety;

T. "substantiated" means a determination, based on a preponderance of collected and assessed credible information, that abuse, neglect or exploitation of an incapacitated or protected adult has occurred; and

U. "surrogate" means a person legally authorized to act on an adult's behalf.

History: Laws 1989, ch. 389, § 3; 1990, ch. 79, § 2; 1997, ch. 132, § 2; 2007, ch. 91, § 2.

The 2007 amendment, effective July 2, 2007, revised the defined terms that are used in the Adult Protective Services Act; defined "abuse" to include sexual abuse; defined "caretaker" to include a facility and provider; defined "conservator" to mean a person appointed to manage property or affairs of an adult; defined "ability to consent", "facility", "multidisciplinary team", "provider", "self-neglect", "substantiated" and "surrogate".

The 1997 amendment, effective June 20, 1997, substituted the language beginning "property or financial" for "estate of a protected adult" in Subsection E; substituted "children, youth and families" for "human services" in Subsection G; substituted "money or property for another person's" for "resources for another's" in Subsection I; substituted the language beginning "has qualified" for "is a guardian of an incapacitated adult pursuant to a court order" in Subsection J; added Subsections K and L, and redesignated the remaining subsections accordingly; in Subsection M, substituted "affairs" for "care", substituted "estate or" for "personal property and", and added the language beginning "but does"; and added the language beginning "or an abused" in Subsection Q.