Lori Weaver, the deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, will lead the department in an acting capacity after Commissioner Lori Shibinette steps down later this month.
The state’s Executive Council unanimously confirmed Weaver’s nomination as acting commissioner Wednesday.
The state’s largest agency, DHHS has more than 3,200 positions and accounts for close to half of the state budget. Its responsibilities include mental health, child welfare, infectious-disease control, the state’s Medicaid program and other forms of public assistance.
Shibinette, who took over the department in early 2020, has overseen its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to expand New Hampshire’s mental health system.
The department’s leaders say workforce shortages are one of its most pressing challenges. At a budget hearing last week, officials said it had a vacancy rate of more than 20%, with some areas hit harder than others. At New Hampshire Hospital, an adult psychiatric facility, about 40% of positions were unfilled, they said.
At her confirmation hearing last week, Weaver said addressing those workforce shortages will be one of her top priorities.
“It’s been a long road, the last couple of years,” she said. “And it’s really important for the department to be able to catch its breath and stabilize and build a workforce. We’re really significantly impacted by not having enough staff to do the job.”
She told councilors she would support increasing wages during upcoming contract negotiations with the state employees’ union, to make those jobs more competitive.
Weaver has spent more than three decades in human services, including 20 years at DHHS. She said she started her career as a youth counselor at the Youth Development Center — a state-run juvenile detention center now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center — then went on to work at residential treatment programs for youth. She has held several leadership posts at DHHS in the last decade.
Multiple state officials, including Shibinette and other DHHS colleagues, testified in support of Weaver’s nomination last week. Weaver told executive councilors she would be interested in the permanent position, if offered to her.
Shibinette steps down Dec. 16, according to Jake Leon, a DHHS spokesman.
Weaver will take over in the midst of the state budgeting process. Last week, presenting their funding request to lawmakers, she and other DHHS officials highlighted some of their major focuses for the next two years.
The department expects the pandemic-related federal public health emergency to end sometime next year. That would mean an end to a federal requirement that people enrolled in Medicaid keep their coverage, even if they would normally have become ineligible.
The state plans to continue expanding mental-health treatment for youth at Hampstead Hospital, which it bought last year, with a residential treatment facility expected to open there next year.
A 24-bed forensic psychiatric hospital is under development and scheduled to open in fiscal year 2025. DHHS officials intend to begin hiring and training staff before then so they are ready to go on day one.
Meanwhile, DHHS is working with legislators to delay the closing of the Sununu Youth Services Center, currently scheduled for March. Chief Financial Officer Nathan White said design work on a replacement facility is underway.
DHHS’ budget proposal would also increase funding for homeless shelters, which are stretched to capacity heading into winter, and raise rates for other services. That includes Choices for Independence, a Medicaid-funded program that provides assistance to people at home who would otherwise need to be in a nursing home. Providers of at-home care say low rates make it hard to pay a living wage, contributing to a dire shortage of direct-care workers in the state.
Governor Chris Sununu will propose a new state budget to the Legislature early next year.
