Briefing Paper Advancing Guardianship Reform and Promoting Less Restrictive Options

The ABA Commission on Law & Aging released recently this paper, WINGS Briefing Paper
Advancing Guardianship Reform and Promoting Less Restrictive . Here are some highlights from the report.

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) awarded a grant to the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging (ABA Commission) to establish, expand or enhance state Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS)…

This briefing paper discusses the ABA Commission’s WINGS Project, its results, and its potential for positive changes. Specifically, it (1) describes the challenges of adult guardianship reform and the rationale for creating WINGS; (2) presents project findings and conclusions about WINGS; (3) discusses the potential for applying the CIP model to the adult guardianship system; and (4) makes recommendations for next steps in federal policy.

The ACL funding was awarded with the goal of testing whether WINGS is an approach that can advance guardianship reform to:

(a) avoid unnecessary and overbroad guardianship when less restrictive options are available, promoting self-determination; and

 (b) prevent, detect and address abuses in the guardianship system.

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While the project WINGS, and indeed all state WINGS, have advanced adult guardianship reform, their modestly funded efforts are not enough to significantly improve outcomes for adults subject to, or potentially subject to, guardianship… Programs like WINGS should exist in every state under a national infrastructure with consistent, ongoing technical assistance and support… [T]he Commission on Law and Aging offers the following … Recommendations:

1. Recommendations for Federal Policy

ACL, in coordination with other federal entities, should provide funding to support the following recommendations:

1. Support WINGS Through Systems Change Grants

• Administer a five-year WINGS systems change grant initiative.
• Include programmatic requirements for monitoring guardians.
• Create a WINGS capacity-building/technical assistance entity.
• Support local or regional WINGS.

1. Take Steps Toward Establishment of a Guardianship Court Improvement Program

• Plan for establishment and implementation of a Guardianship Court Improvement Program. Pilot the program and support a capacity-building center.

• • Secure federal legislation with appropriations to implement and sustain a Guardianship Court Improvement Program.

The full report is available here.