Articles and Decisions: Guardianship Lifespan - Guardianship Program               LIFESPAN PROVIDES GUARDIANS FOR IMPAIRED ADULTS (From the Hamilton Journal News -- August 13, 2005)               For most of his adult life, Jim (his name has been changed to protect his privacy) has struggled with mental illness. Now in his late 40s, he has found safety and stability after a 20-year span in which he was hospitalized 16 different times, lived in several different settings and experienced homelessness. In April of 1998, while he was again hospitalized, the Butler County Board of Mental Health referred his case to the Guardianship program at LifeSpan, Inc. After LifeSpan staff assessed his case and the Probate Court granted the agency guardianship, Jim became a ward with a court-appointed guardian. In the more than seven years since, he has had stable housing, taken his medication, received medical treatment and, most significantly, remained out of the hospital. While his mental illness will likely require him to take medication and live in a supervised setting for the rest of his life, the stability Jim has achieved is due in large part to the active role of his LifeSpan guardian.             There are currently more than 140 adults in Butler County who are the wards of court-appointed guardians at LifeSpan. Approximately one-third of these men and women are elderly with no immediate family to serve as a guardian, while another third were referred to the Guardianship program by mental health services, and the other third were referred by the Butler County Board of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities (MRDD).             LifeSpan is the only organization in Butler County offering a guardianship program and has been providing this vital service since 1996. The program began when several organizations in the county including nursing homes, hospitals, the MRDD Board, the Mental Health Board and the Probate Court recognized the need to find guardians to serve as advocates for some of the community's most vulnerable citizens - the elderly, mentally ill and mentally disabled. While many of these adults receive ongoing services from agencies, there is a need for them to have one person, a guardian, who will be responsible for their health, finances and safety. In addition, for many of these adults, the guardian may be their only friend and the only person visiting them outside of medical professionals or caregivers.             LifeSpan responded to this need by launching its Guardianship program in 1996. While first envisioned as a volunteer program, LifeSpan began receiving referrals immediately, before volunteers could be screened and trained. Qualified staff became the first court-appointed guardians and that has continued while volunteer guardians have also become a vital component of the program's success. There are currently three staff guardians managing 106 court-appointed wards while 25 trained volunteer guardians are responsible for another 36 wards. Since the program's inception, the number of referrals has grown annually as the population continues to age and as mental health and MRDD clients live more independently than they did in the past when institutionalization was more common. In addition, LifeSpan is exploring expanding its Guardianship program into Warren County.             LifeSpan serves as a model for other Guardianship programs as it is one of the few which serves the elderly and those with mental illnesses and disabilities. Many programs limit their service to older adults who meet specific criteria.             The growing need for guardians is not limited to this region. It is a trend seen throughout the state as more and more courts turn away from using attorneys as guardians to find more hands-on volunteer or professional guardians. Two organizations, the National Guardianship Association and the Ohio Guardianship Association, work to support the efforts of guardians, provide them education and training, and increase the professionalism of the field. LifeSpan is a member of both organizations.             Most adults in need of a guardian have no family member able, willing or appropriate to act on their behalf. They have mental or physical impairments which leave them unable to take care of themselves or make competent decisions regarding their health, where they should live or their finances. The staff and volunteer guardians at LifeSpan believe strongly that everyone in our society has value and the right to proper care, nutrition and to live in a safe, stable setting. In addition, each person deserves to be treated with respect and enjoy quality of life. Personal visits from a guardian not only ensure that wards are being monitored but also bring them much needed personal contact and communication.             There is an ongoing need for compassionate volunteers to serve as guardians in Butler County. To qualify, a volunteer must be at least 18 years old, an  Ohio resident, attend an orientation and future training sessions, agree to fingerprinting and police background checks, be willing to visit the ward one to two times a month, and make a two-year commitment to the program. LifeSpan will provide all training, support and assist in the Probate Court proceedings. As with most volunteer positions, participants report they receive much more from their efforts than they give, particularly in terms of the satisfaction they get from knowing they help improve someones life. For more information call LifeSpan at (513) 868-3210 or visit the Web site at www.lifespanohio.org .             LifeSpan Inc., directed by CEO Cynthia Stever, is celebrating its 60th year of service to Butler County and 10 years of service in Warren County. Guardianship is one of the 13 programs offered by this private, nonprofit organization known for its innovative, cost-effective services to families, individuals, groups and schools. LifeSpan serves approximately 15,000 individuals and families each year with needs at all points in the life span from birth to senior maturity. It has offices in Hamilton, Lebanon and Middletown and a future West Chester site. . For more information call LifeSpan at (513) 868-3210 or visit the Web site www.lifespanohio.org   Butler County's Volunteer Guardianship Program BUTLER COUNTY=S VOLUNTEER GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAM   By: Judge Randy T. Rogers Butler County Probate Court Augsut 19, 2003  There are some answers that cannot be found in law books and there are some problems that cannot be solved in courtrooms. As a law student I never learned the importance of working with social service organizations, and during my years as a trial lawyer I never found it necessary to be involved with these groups. When I became a judge in 1995, my education started all over again, and I began to appreciate the value of these organizations to an effective court system. The development of Butler County=s Volunteer Guardianship Program began in 1994 with the formation of an ad hoc committee chaired by a magistrate from the Probate Court. The motivation for creating this committee was the increasing frequency of requests coming to the Probate Court for the appointment of guardians for persons who were indigent, without family support, and considered incapable of giving consent for major life decisions. Representatives from hospitals, aging and social service agencies, and the legal community participated in the early discussions. By the end of 1995 the Committee adopted a mission statement calling for the needed program  Ato provide mature, caring, qualified guardians for individuals whose mental impairments so incapacitate them that they are unable to care for themselves or make sound personal decisions, and to enhance the quality of their lives.@ Specifications for a volunteer guardianship program were agreed upon and bids were solicited. A local agency with a long history of providing services to the area=s needy submitted a bid which was accepted by a collaborative formed by the local mental health and mental retardation boards and the Probate Court. The Butler County Volunteer Guardianship Program began its operation in 1996 and since that time has been administered by Lifespan, a nonprofit social service organization that administers other programs that meet the needs of the elderly and the mentally disabled. During its first seven years, the Guardianship Program received 490 referrals from hospitals, nursing homes, mental health and mental retardation agencies, attorneys, and others. At the end of 2002, the Program was providing guardianship services to 135 very needy persons. Sixty percent of those persons have been diagnosed with some form of mental illness. The Program=s 1996 budget of $51,000 was funded by grants from the general operating budgets of the mental health and mental retardation boards and from the indigent guardianship fees collected by the Probate Court. Since then, additional funding sources have been secured by the ongoing fund-raising efforts of Lifespan. In 2002 the Program=s annual budget was $217,900, with contributions coming from private donors, private foundations, hospitals, nursing homes and adult protective service agencies, supplementing the contributions from the mental health and mental retardation boards and the Probate Court. Guardianship services are provided by volunteers trained by Lifespan and by staff members employed by Lifespan. As in any other guardianship the Probate Court appoints the guardians. Court personnel meet as needed with the Program administrator to establish protocols. The Program has met what was a desperate need. At the end of 2002 there were 22 active volunteer guardians and two staff guardians. The volunteer guardians were handling 30 guardianships and the staff guardians were handling the other 105. The Program has also employed a Volunteer Coordinator whose assigned duties include the recruitment of additional volunteers. One of the volunteers who provided early training to other volunteers, and who has been active in the Program from its inception, formerly served as a full-time associate professor of nursing at Miami University. She has described her work as the guardian for Tommy, a 60-year-old man with Down=s Syndrome, as Aan opportunity to be a friend to somebody I may not have ever known otherwise.@ Another volunteer, a young mother of two whose spouse was tragically killed in an industrial accident, and who works as a nurse at an area nursing home, gives of her time to serve as the guardian of an elderly woman named Ruby who lives at a different nursing home. She says of Ruby that although Ait may seem as though there is a big time investment in being a Guardian, in reality, I spend only five to seven hours monthly in visits, phone calls, and paperwork. This time investment is well worth the satisfaction I gain from being available to someone who truly needs me and appreciates what I do for her. Ruby has become part of my family and she makes my day when I get a phone call and her voice is on the line saying >Honey, I need you!'"                    Judges do not have all the answers and courts cannot solve everyone=s problems, but by working with other types of organizations, judges can find more answers, and courts can solve more problems.

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