Proposal changes role of guardianship for elderly

Some of you may have noticed that Florida has a lot of old people. Many of them poor, fragile, dealing with some degree of dementia, and in need of help in getting through the day and managing assets (if they had any). Often there is no competent and willing family member to provide the help and the court appoints an individual or an agency to serve as guardian.

By the early 1970s, most states had some kind of guardianship program, but they differed widely in structure and scope. Some had only private guardians, others had only public guardians, and some had both. Nonprofit organizations were beginning to offer their services. As the movement begin to grow so did reports of abuse and corruption. The U.S. Administration on Aging wanted some evidence that the money they were providing was doing more good than bad, and gave us at FSU a two-year grant to see what we could learn.

We read state statutes, visited programs, interviewed wards, with the intent of identifying problems and points of controversy. There were a lot of both, along with some good work. Our findings were summarized in a book published in 1981, including a proposed model statute (Public Guardianship and The Elderly). Now skip ahead 30 years to 2015, when the Florida Legislature did a major overhaul of the laws relating to guardianship, incorporating features included in our model statute of 35 years ago (but much more detailed and sophisticated). As I write this the Legislature is set to pass a bill to expand the authority of Elderly Affairs to regulate private guardians, with a particular focus on curbing abuse and fraud.

All 40 senators signed on (an unusual happening), and the House signed a similar bill. It is highly unlikely that these recent moves would have developed without the work of journalists. In December 2014, the Herald-Tribune ran a series of articles under the heading “The Kindness of Strangers,” focused on frail individuals who had been mistreated by unregulated private guardians. Legislators acknowledged that these stories were the primary stimulus for the new legislation. No surprise. All of us like a story. We want the details: we want to smell them, to taste them. Stories like this evoke empathy. This work of the Herald-Tribune is an excellent example of the value of investigative reporting.

When this proposed legislation becomes law, Florida can take pride in what may be the best such in the country. But it won’t mean a thing if it is underfunded. Staff will be needed for investigations, enforcement, and general oversight of the program. Lots of money. But money well spent when keeping in mind the costs to the person made a ward of the state: total loss of control of almost everything; The person found to be incompetent loses all control and comes out on the short end in the tension between protection of the person and basic civil rights, with no say in spending money, or who can visit, living arrangements, and almost everything else.

Kent Miller used to teach psychology at FSU. Now, at 88, he finds himself dealing with life as an octogenarian and its issues — death, sex at 80, money, loneliness, long-term marriage, maneuvering through the health care system. Reach him at ksmiller@fsu.edu. 

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Proposal changes role of guardianship for elderly