By investing in a guardianship system, New York can ensure that older residents in need of protective arrangements have access to the appropriate services.
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Our state is home to 3.2 million older adults — a figure expected to nearly double by 2030. Over the past decade, the poverty rate among older New Yorkers increased, with Black, Hispanic, Asian, and immigrant residents most likely to experience poverty in their older years.
Today, nearly a third of older New Yorkers are aging alone. Gov. Kathy Hochul has pointed to investments in aging services and long-term care as the pathway to greater equity in aging. But when it comes to caring for older adults who are poor and alone, we have yet to deliver on our promises.
Conservative estimates suggest that more than half of older New Yorkers will require some form of long-term care. One way to facilitate long-term care is Article 81 Guardianship — a legal tool that assigns a surrogate decision-maker for those who can no longer manage their affairs and are at risk of harm. When applied properly, guardianship can improve health, safety and quality-of-life outcomes.
Unfortunately, guardianship services are not equally accessible to all. Our law states that those in need of a guardian shall be appointed one yet offers no funding or infrastructure to adequately deliver on that promise. In this broken system, thousands are left without the services they need and wind up in nursing homes, hospitals are overcrowded, and community guardianship programs are stretched to capacity.
It doesn’t have to be this way. By investing in a guardianship system, we can ensure that older New Yorkers in need of protective arrangements have access to the appropriate services. We can address glaring inequities in our current system and prevent unnecessary guardianships by connecting community members with a range of resources. We can also save taxpayers millions of dollars long-term by keeping people out of hospitals and nursing homes.
We were thrilled to see a preliminary $5 million investment in the Senate one-house budget, and we will continue to work toward further investment, which would advance equity in aging, reverse an over-reliance on our guardianship system, and restore our commitment to older adults.
We are all aging, and we all deserve a system of care that aligns with our New York values. It’s time to act. It’s time to fund good guardianship.
State Sen. Kevin Thomas of Nassau County represents the 6th Senate
District. Kimberly George is president & CEO of Project
Guardianship. Becky Preve, executive director of the Association on
Aging in New York, also contributed.
Full Article & Source:
Commentary: New York state must invest more in guardianship program
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