Preserving Rights for Individuals Facing Guardianship

Preserving Rights for Individuals Facing Guardianship Jennifer Moye, PhD; Aanand D. Naik, MD


Author Affiliations: VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Moye); and Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas (Dr Naik).

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.

KEYWORDS: AGING, CIVIL RIGHTS, DECISION MAKING, LEGAL GUARDIANS, MENTAL COMPETENCY, MENTAL DISORDERS, NERVOUS SYSTEM DISEASES, PATIENT-PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP.

The issue of adult guardianship poses increasing challenges in an aging society. Physicians play an essential role in ensuring its equitable and appropriate application. Yet physicians may be unaware of the evolution of guardianship law over the past 2 decades.

Physicians are knowledgeable about their older patients' functioning and such patients' experiences with elder abuse, neglect, or exploitation. As a result, physicians are identified to provide opinions regarding the capacity of their patients to live safely in the community or to manage health and financial affairs when a question of guardianship is raised. In most states, guardianship concerns the capacity to make personal decisions about health, home, and personal matters, and conservatorship concerns decisions about financial management. Guardianship and conservatorship are legal interventions by the state in which the rights to make decisions are removed from one person and assigned to another after a hearing. Reform of guardianship law throughout …

[Full Text of this Article in JAMA]

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/9/936.full
 
Editor's note: Oh Jennifer, in a perfect world guardianship is a wonderful conduit to aid the elderly and infirmed.  However, in a corrupt environment such as  the Probate Court of Cook County, this assistance is perverted and used to line the pockets of crooked "whores of the court" selected by greedy judges.  Why don't the Federal Authorities use the RICO Act to put an end to this disciplined, illegal transference of wealth from legitimate heirs  that is converted into the hands of the unentitled. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com