Missouri teacher seeks guardianship for former student

Special education teacher Rita Richards is advocating for guardianship of her former student, Zack

by Matt Flener

CLAY COUNTY, Mo. —  Rita Richards showed up with a group of people to speak at a Clay County Commission business meeting last month.

The special education teacher had one mission: to ensure the county commission knew her concerns about her former student, Zack.

Zack became a ward of the state in 2014.

Richards invited him to her family get-togethers and holiday celebrations to stay in touch with him when he was put under public guardianship.

During that time, she started noticing concerns about his living conditions, hygiene, and safety.

His current guardian is Clay County Public Administrator Alexa Summit. Summit has held the office since 2021. Before then, two other public administrators oversaw Zack’s care.

A judge has reviewed Zack’s case multiple times and kept him under public guardianship through the Clay County Public Administrator’s office.

Richards told the county commission about her experience advocating for her former student.

"I was pushed out,” she said. “I was not allowed to visit anymore. They didn't want to hear my concerns.”

After Richards spoke to commissioners, KMBC 9 Investigates asked Summit to comment on Zack's case.

An attorney responded on Summit’s behalf.

"We do have to respect the confidentiality of the individuals that the public administrator's office is tasked to serve as guardian and conservator for,” said attorney Paemon Aramjoo. “We are therefore unable to provide comment on a specific case or the individuals involved."

PAPER PRISONS: Public guardianship in Missouri under investigation

Richards contacted KMBC 9 Investigates after seeing KMBC’s “Paper Prisons” investigation last year. The ongoing investigative series explores problems and solutions for Missouri’s public guardianship system, which serves as a societal backstop for people who struggle to find safe care with friends or family.

The work of Missouri’s public administrators, who act as public guardians, often goes unnoticed in probate courts, phone calls, and long trips to visit wards across the state. They are tasked with heavy caseloads in Missouri’s 114 counties and the City of St. Louis.

Often, those wards are placed into facilities hours from where they once called home.

In Clay County, a recent performance audit found the Public Administrator was responsible for 309 wards, as of 2023.

More than half of those live within the radius of Clay, Platte, Ray, Jackson, Cass, Lafayette, Pettis, Saline, Johnson, and Carroll counties, the audit found.

But at least 117 wards live in other counties across the state.

“It would be my preference to place all individuals in Clay County but due to the lack of resources, this cannot be accomplished,” the public administrator’s office told the Clay County Auditor. “We will continue to evaluate all wards to ensure they are in the most suitable and least restrictive environment. We will also continue to stay aware of resources in our community and advocate for quality care for each person.”

Public administrators are assigned caseloads from judges when hospitals, nursing homes, family, or friends recommend court-approved placement for individuals to keep them safe, fed, and housed.

But public guardianship has also come under fire in Missouri from the United States Department of Justice for unnecessarily institutionalizing people in nursing homes.

Judges give Missouri public administrators wide control of wards' lives when they believe family or friends can no longer care for them. They are required to file yearly reports with the court about care plans for their wards.

Clay County public guardianship oversight next steps

The county commission began appointing the public administrator after the 2020 general election changed it from an elected to appointed position. Circuit court judges now recommend a person for the role.

Richards told the commission she could serve as Zack's guardian, noting that she has not had response from Summit in years.

"I've sent 33 emails and I've had zero responses," she said.

Richards told the commission she found in court documents that Zack was stabbed by his roommate in 2025.

During the meeting, she also asked people concerned about public administrator guardianship om Clay County to stand in support. Dozens of people stood behind her.

"Zack's survival should not be the end of this story,” Richards also said from the podium. “It should be the beginning of accountability.”

After the meeting, she told KMBC she felt the commission listened to her concerns and hopes commission members will establish an independent review board to keep the public administrator's work in check.

If you know of someone going through struggles with Missouri’s public guardianship system, or if you have a case to highlight that exposes solutions for Missouri’s public guardianship system that could teach lessons to others, please email investigates@kmbc.com

Full Article & Source:
Missouri teacher seeks guardianship for former student 

See Also:
Missouri woman shares journey of restoration from public guardianship

Missouri woman shares journey of restoration from public guardianship

Mackenzie Garton, a former ward of the state in Missouri, shares her story of independence after more than 13 years under public guardianship. 

by Matt Flener 

MARSHFIELD, Mo. —  Mackenzie Garton used a small applicator at her dining room table last month, picking up tiny pieces of diamond art to create a picture of a wolf. The do-it-yourself craft project — a mix between cross-stitch and paint by numbers — takes perseverance and determination.

Garton recently started the hobby to help her patience and mental health after years of guardianship in Missouri.

“I gotta get them on the end of this pencil,” she said, as she picked up a magnifying glass to see.

Asked if she could have done a similar project a few years ago while a ward of the state in group homes, she said, “No probably not. I didn’t take the time.”

Garton, who lives in a small apartment in Marshfield, Missouri, has gained several skills since living independently for the past couple of years.

"Sometimes it wasn't easy," Garton said. "Just because I have a mental illness, and just because I was on guardianship, doesn't mean I was evil, or I wasn't a human being."

Garton attends a day program. She has counseling, medicine and a support team. She still needs help with her finances.

Danielle Boggs, the county’s public administrator, remains her conservator to help with budgeting and spending.

But Boggs believed Garton could manage life on her own, away from group homes. She encouraged Garton to seek a medical opinion in 2023, leading to a judge’s decision to restore her right to live independently.

"I give praise to Danielle a lot. I really do. She has been there for me through all of it," Garton said. "I would say my years of guardianship was awesome, really."

Restoration and risks under public guardianship

Garton is one of tens of thousands of people who have interacted with Missouri's public guardianship system since the turn of the 20th century.

People like Garton in Missouri are often referred to public administrators, elected or appointed officials, to act as court-appointed guardians when a judge decides family or friends can no longer care for them.

Garton contacted KMBC 9 Investigates after Boggs told her about KMBC’s investigation called Paper Prisons. KMBC is exploring ways to systemically improve the care of those under guardianship by telling stories of people struggling to navigate a tangled system of legal paperwork, medical records, and court orders. KMBC is also seeking answers, perspective, and context from those in charge of keeping wards of the state in their care for their recommendations on how to improve the system.

"I see it is something much different than a Paper Prison,” Boggs said. “I see it as someone needs help and there's a resource connector put into place to help connect them to those resources."

Boggs let Garton speak for herself to respect her privacy but did speak to KMBC about her work as public administrator. She has around 100 people in her caseload and is the former president of the Missouri Association of Public Administrators.

"When people realize we're all interconnected and we all need to rely on different people at different times to help us with different things in our lives, that's what makes restoration so beautiful," Boggs said.

Public administrators ask for help to take care of wards better

Still, Boggs believes Missouri's public guardians and wards need more help from state lawmakers.

A 2024 U.S. Department of Justice report highlighted how Missouri "unnecessarily institutionalizes" people inside nursing homes. Boggs said those facilities are often the only places available to send people who need highly specialized help.

“It's something that public administrators have said for a long time,” she said. “We don't have anything else. The state does not provide any high-level structured setting for people to have oversight, counseling, medication management.”

Boggs believes the state needs to add capacity for highly structured behavioral health settings with Department of Mental Health involvement and counseling.

She also emphasized those facilities must not solely focus on medication management but life skills training, counseling and things that can help them reintegrate once they get to a lower level of care.

“But in the meantime, there's nowhere else for these individuals to be placed in our current system,” she said.

Boggs also spoke to KMBC last year as part of a leadership group with the Missouri Association of Public Administrators. She emphasized more education is needed about the role of guardians and said issues within Missouri’s public guardianship system should not be attributed solely to public administrators.

Private guardians, multiple state agencies and courts all have a role to play, they said.

Meanwhile, KMBC has fielded calls, letters and emails from multiple wards of the state across Missouri asking to share their stories about being trapped in that system. KMBC continues to investigate their claims, seeking accountability and insight from public officials, judges and attorneys in charge of their care.

Garton, meanwhile, is grateful for her time in guardianship, believing it was important for her to set her life on the right path.

“It wasn't all easy,” she said. “That's what I had to do is take responsibility and, and own up to my own actions, and take care of things for myself.”

If you know of someone going through struggles with Missouri’s public guardianship system, or if you have a case to highlight that exposes solutions for Missouri’s public guardianship system that could teach lessons to others, please email investigates@kmbc.com. 

Full Article & Source:
Missouri woman shares journey of restoration from public guardianship 

See Also:
Paper Prisons: Missouri woman seeking release from public guardianship 

Paper Prisons: Missouri woman seeking release from public guardianship

Chiro Richey released a YouTube video last year pleading for help with guardianship

by Matt Flener

FARMINGTON, Mo. — Inside a wing of a nursing home in Farmington, Missouri, Chiro Richey has answered the facility’s phone multiple times over the past six months. She cannot leave without permission from her court-appointed guardian.

"This is nothing like prison," she said in one of her phone conversations with KMBC 9 Investigates. "This is way worse than prison."

Richey is not under a criminal sentence.

She lives in the Farmington care facility as part of her public guardian’s care plan for her life.

"We go outside to smoke break, and that's about it," she said.

Buchanan County Public Administrator Brad Haggard, Richey’s guardian, told KMBC he could not speak about Richey’s case due to privacy concerns. But Haggard invited KMBC to learn more about the work he and five other staff members inside his office do every day.

Haggard, court records indicate, has also agreed for Richey to seek an independent psychological evaluation that could determine if she could be released from public guardianship.

Missouri public administrators like Haggard are mostly elected, sometimes appointed, to serve as court-approved public guardians when people cannot care for themselves or lack family support.

The phone rings an average of 70 times a day in his office. More than half of the callers are wards under his care with questions. Others are medical providers, attorneys or people seeking his consent for something. To keep up, he just got approval from the county commission for two more staff members in his office.

As a former nursing home administrator and state-level leader for the Missouri Veterans Commission Homes program, Haggard said it catches his attention when he hears one of his clients feels like they are in prison.

"Because we certainly don't want that," he said. "We don't want anyone to feel like that."

Paper Prisons: Public guardianship in Missouri under investigation

Chiro Richey is one of more than an estimated 11,000 people in Missouri under public guardianship.

Richey spoke to KMBC 9 News for an ongoing investigation called "Paper Prisons," highlighting the difficulties of wards of the state and their families under Missouri’s system of public guardianship.

KMBC is investigating ways to systemically improve the care of those under guardianship by telling stories of people struggling to navigate a tangled system of legal paperwork, medical records and court orders. KMBC is also seeking answers, perspective and context from those in charge of keeping wards of the state in their care for their recommendations on how to improve the system.

"I’m locked up and trapped in a system that is not fair," Richey said on the phone with KMBC.

In 2016, Richey became a ward of the state of Missouri. She had a drug problem, she said.

"I asked the judge to take my rights away, so that I could get clean," she said in a YouTube video released last year. "Well, after I got clean, they would not let me go."

Every year since 2017, a judge has reviewed a year-end status report from her public guardian about her living conditions and her finances. Richey appeared before Buchanan County Judge David Bolander in September of last year. She thanked him for reviewing her case.

Bolander ordered an independent psychological evaluation for Richey to help him review her request for restoration. But the evaluation has faced multiple delays since then.

Bolander, in court paperwork, has indicated the evaluation will now take place in early March, and he will review Richey’s case again on March 25.

Richey said she has taken classes, seen doctors, written letters to the court, but remains under the state’s care.

"It puts you in a place of loneliness," she said.

Public administrators face challenges with clients across the state

Brad Haggard must travel five and a half hours across the state if he wants to visit Richey.

Haggard has become a road warrior since taking office in January of 2025.

He has 297 clients. About half of the people in that caseload are in 34 different nursing homes across the state. A Missouri map hangs in his office with push pins for every Missouri town with a client, reaching all the way down to Missouri’s southwest bootheel. Buchanan County is in the northwest corner of the state.

Proximity is a common challenge for Missouri guardians and their wards.

People like Richey are spread out in facilities, group homes or other living arrangements across the state’s 114 counties and the city of St. Louis due to few resources close to home.

"We'd be able to be more engaged with people if our clients were close to us," Haggard said.

Often, the safest and quickest option for food, medical care and shelter for public guardians is Missouri’s 486 skilled nursing facilities.

However, in 2024, the United States Department of Justice found that Missouri "unnecessarily institutionalizes" too many people with mental health disabilities in skilled nursing homes, improperly relying on guardianship. The report said Missouri used "guardianship as a pipeline" to nursing homes across the state.

A 2020 report from the Missouri Association of Public Administrators mentioned several opportunities for improvement, saying a "lack of state funding and coordination leaves Missouri with a fragmented public guardianship system."

The report highlighted how public administrators often do not have enough resources, "while navigating complex systems to provide care for their wards — while also facing increased pressure from the state and stakeholders to ensure all wards are placed in their least-restrictive alternatives."

Haggard said it is always his goal to get people to the least restrictive setting or placement. Proximity is important in that conversation, he said. Haggard would tell lawmakers that Missouri needs more available housing placement and community resources for wards.

"Particularly closer to you," he said. "So, you could be more involved in them," he said.

Still, Haggard said he and his staff work nonstop trying to communicate with his clients or caregivers every day.

Chiro Richey’s next steps

Meanwhile, Chiro Richey waits for her next steps.

She wants to move back to St. Joseph, find a job and reconnect with family.

Until then, she remains in the skilled nursing facility in Farmington.

Richey wanted her story to be public so it might help her and others get out of guardianship.

"Just get the word out," she said. "There's people like us that are stuck in these places that need to be released."

If you know of someone going through struggles with Missouri’s public guardianship system, or if you have a case to highlight that exposes solutions for Missouri’s public guardianship system that could teach lessons to others, please email investigates@kmbc.com.

Full Article & Source:
Paper Prisons: Missouri woman seeking release from public guardianship 

See Also:
Judge: Missouri public guardian’s felony financial crime case can move forward

Missouri public guardian pleads not guilty to eight felony counts

Missouri elected guardian charged with 8 felonies for stealing from ward

Paper Prisons: Missouri woman details struggle to leave public guardianship after husband's death

Paper Prisons: Missouri man continues fight to free his mother from public guardianship 

Sullivan County elected official accused of stealing thousands from disabled person 

Paper Prisons: Missouri woman details struggle to leave public guardianship after husband's death

Barbara Chaffee recounts leaving guardianship in Pulaski County after three years

by Matt Flener

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. — Barbara Chaffee fought hard for her freedom from public guardianship in Missouri.

But that freedom came with a cost.

Chaffee now lives in public housing with donated appliances. She has lost her money, her home and most everything she owned.

Chaffee says she fought hard to leave a nursing home for three years while the public administrator's office in Pulaski County controlled Chaffee's finances, housing and decisions after her husband's death.

"We had a good life," Chaffee said while remembering her late husband, Dennis.

The public administrator in Pulaski County, Becky Allen, has declined to comment about Chaffee's case. Chaffee is critical of Allen's work on her case, believing she could have done much more to help her leave guardianship.

Chaffee agreed to share her story in a KMBC 9 investigation called "Paper Prisons," documenting the struggles of Missouri's wards of the state along with their families under Missouri's public guardianship system. 

It's a complicated network of court orders, medical paperwork and financial filings that wards must navigate under the watch of elected officials, doctors and nursing home administrators. KMBC is also seeking answers, perspective and context from those in charge of keeping wards of the state in their care for their recommendations on how to improve the system.

BARBARA CHAFFEE'S LIFE IN GUARDIANSHIP

Barbara Chaffee mourns not only her husband's death but also what happened after he died.

In 2021, Chaffee became a ward of the state in Pulaski County following her husband's death.

She tried to take her own life.

Court paperwork shows the former public administrator appealed to become her public guardian. The court deemed her incapacitated and disabled. Chaffee cannot remember who asked the public administrator’s office to take over her case.

"You know how you get that feeling in your gut? Something's just not right," Chaffee said, reflecting on the judge's decision that gave the Pulaski County Public Administrator's Office control of her money and her home.

Missouri's public administrators are elected or appointed in every county to serve as guardians for people when their families no longer can or want to care for them.

In Chaffee's case, the public administrator said she could not find family to care for Barbara after her husband's death.

Chaffee was kept in nursing homes for more than three years, a period she describes as "horrible."

"Those images in your brain of being in those types of places," she said. "They're burned into your memory. Into your heart."

Chaffee fought hard to leave public guardianship. She eventually worked with an attorney and a doctor to convince a judge to grant her freedom in 2024.

Chaffee believes others in Missouri are also in situations that are difficult to leave when public guardians take control of their lives.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS DETAIL CHALLENGES, IMPORTANCE OF THEIR WORK

Leaders with the Missouri Association of Public Administrators, who were not involved in Chaffee's case, recently spoke to KMBC 9 Investigates to detail their work in challenging situations.

"Public administrators are some of the most caring people that I know," said Cher Caudel, Moniteau County public administrator since 2003 and current MAPA president. "They truly do want to make a difference for the people that they are appointed to, and they do the best that they can with what they have, and a lot of times what we have isn't much."

A 2020 report commissioned for the Missouri Association of Public Administrators highlighted how public administrators often do not have enough resources, "while navigating complex systems to provide care for their wards – while also facing increased pressure from the state and stakeholders to ensure all wards are placed in their least-restrictive alternatives."

Caudel, along with former MAPA President and Webster County Public Administrator Danielle Boggs, emphasized restoration into the community for wards is a goal, though they acknowledge the challenges if someone does not cooperate with their care or restoration plans.

They also said public administrators do not have a goal to keep people in nursing homes or other residential care facilities long-term.

"There is never a time when I say, 'Okay, we're going to put you there, lock you there, throw away the key,'" Boggs said.

Boggs and Caudel also said restoration is not a problem in their respective counties.

Missouri does not currently track how many wards of the state are restored away from guardianship. MAPA leadership said it could possibly be beneficial to track restorations away from guardianships, but since each county is run differently by appointed or elected officials with different levels of staffing, caseloads and resources, it could be difficult to interpret what restorations mean, especially with different judges' requirements in probate courts across the state.

RESPONSE FROM PULASKI COUNTY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR

In a written statement, Allen declined to comment on Chaffee's case.

During a visit to Pulaski County, KMBC 9 Investigates attempted to speak with Allen about her role as a public guardian on another case KMBC 9 has investigated.

She declined to comment about that case, too.

Chaffee eventually left her guardianship with the help of an attorney and doctors who proved she did not need to be in a nursing home.

Still, Chaffee has very little to her name.

"I was stripped bare," Chaffee said.

Chaffee hopes by sharing her story she can help others leave public guardianship if they don’t need to be there.

Throughout the next year, KMBC will continue to explore the challenges and opportunities for improvement in Missouri's public guardianship system.

We need your help.

If you know of someone going through struggles with Missouri's public guardianship system, or if you have a case to highlight that exposes solutions for Missouri’s public guardianship system that could teach lessons to others, please email investigates@kmbc.com.

Full Article & Source:
Paper Prisons: Missouri woman details struggle to leave public guardianship after husband's death 

See Also:
Paper Prisons: Missouri man continues fight to free his mother from public guardianship

Paper Prisons: Missouri man continues fight to free his mother from public guardianship

Greg Lee has battled public administrator in Pulaski County to get access to his mom

by Matt Flener

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. — Greg Lee wants to see and free his mom.

Lee believes his mother, Shirley Butler, has remained trapped in Missouri’s public guardianship system for more than six years.

Courts have ruled multiple times against his attempts to end his mother’s guardianship.

But he won’t stop fighting to visit her more often and eventually remove her from the care of a county elected official.

"It's a story that needs to be told," Lee said. "When I hear the word 'guardian,' it makes me cringe."

Public guardians, meanwhile, at the state level, believe their work is vital to Missouri and often delve into extremely complex family situations with very few resources.

Lee’s story about his mother is part of a new KMBC 9 investigation called “Paper Prisons,” highlighting the difficulties of wards of the state and their families under Missouri’s system of public guardianship.

KMBC is investigating ways to systemically improve the care of those under guardianship by highlighting stories of people struggling to navigate a tangled system of legal paperwork, medical records and court orders. KMBC is also seeking answers, perspective and context from those in charge of keeping wards of the state in their care for their recommendations on how to improve the system. Missouri had more 11,000 wards according to a 2020 report. That same report mentioned several opportunities for improvement, saying a “lack of state funding and coordination leaves Missouri with a fragmented public guardianship system.”

SHIRLEY BUTLER’S GUARDIANSHIP

Butler, 78, has been under public guardianship since Lee and his sister signed paperwork in 2019, asking the Pulaski County public administrator to be a temporary guardian for their mother after Butler’s boyfriend fell sick with cancer.

Every Missouri county has a public administrator.

Public administrators in Missouri are mostly elected, sometimes appointed, to serve as public guardians when people cannot care for themselves or lack family support.

Lee was caring for his mother but needed more help, he said.

Lee and his sister, whom courts have found have a strained relationship, signed the guardianship agreement together, asking Pulaski County's public administrator to oversee their mother's estate.

Lee believes asking the public administrator in Pulaski County for help was the biggest mistake of his life.

"I threw my mom in the fire,” he said. “I thought I was helping her and all I did was make her life h***, so, I can't stop fighting now."

Under guardianship, Butler became a ward of the state, with the public administrator’s office gaining control over her finances, home and life decisions.

This month, a Missouri appeals court just ruled his mother’s guardianship is valid after Lee, his sister and the public administrator have gone back and forth for years over its legality.

KMBC 9 Investigates has not heard back from Lee’s sister after multiple attempts to reach her.

Lee also alleged that a previous public administrator kept him from seeing his mom.

But a judge ruled the public administrator was “working in her best interests.”

A court also denied Lee his plan to move his mom into his home, issuing judgments three times since the original guardianship placement finding that Lee was unable to care for his mother and that the guardianship in place was needed.

One judgment from 2021 also says his conduct when he visited his mom was “upsetting to Ms. Butler and disruptive to other residents and staff members,” saying there were 20-30 disruptions during visits.

Lee denies that he caused any disruptions during any visits or that his visits were upsetting to his mother.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SHIRLEY BUTLER’S CARE

Lee has documented his mom’s injuries, including multiple falls and a fractured pelvis, while she has remained under guardianship.

He believes Pulaski County's current public administrator, Becky Allen, is not providing proper care. Lee has also complained about the public administrator’s handling of his mom’s case to various state and federal authorities.

KMBC 9 Investigates recently asked Allen for an interview about Butler’s case.

Her attorney sent a statement asserting that a court had ruled the public administrator’s office had performed its duties "in an exemplary, professional and efficient manner."

“There have been accusations which perpetuated investigations pertaining to Ms. Butler, from the Department of Health and Senior Services, the Attorney General's Office of the State of Missouri, the Social Security Administration, and the Board of Nursing,” said the attorney’s statement. “Further, the annual settlements are reviewed and approved by the Court. Each entity has confirmed the performance of duties of the Public Administrator to be appropriate and pursuant to all laws and regulations.”

But the attorney’s statement left out any answers as to whether Butler needed to remain under guardianship and why Lee has such trouble seeing her.

After multiple written attempts to ask for an interview, KMBC 9 Investigates recently asked Allen questions outside the Pulaski County Courthouse.

She remained silent, declining to comment, and walked away. Later, she turned out the lights and walked out of her office as KMBC 9 Investigates was videotaping the exterior of her office.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS FACE MULTIPLE CHALLENGES ACROSS MISSOURI WHILE CARING FOR PEOPLE IN COMPLEX SITUATIONS

Public administrators across the state of Missouri are often assigned complex guardianship situations with broken family dynamics. Judges appoint them as guardians for people with severe mental and physical health issues. They can have heavy caseloads and staffing in their offices remains challenging.

Leaders with the Missouri Association of Public Administrators, who are not involved in Shirley Butler’s case, recently spoke to KMBC 9 Investigates to underscore how important their work is to the public in Missouri. They reiterated that public administrators do not actively seek out guardianship cases and are working to help people get restoration into the community, especially when they are in restrictive environments like nursing homes.

“Public administrators are some of the most caring people that I know,” said Cher Caudel, Moniteau County public administrator since 2003 and current MAPA president. “They truly do want to make a difference for the people that they are appointed to, and they do the best that they can with what they have, and a lot of times what we have isn’t much.”

They also believe more funding and support from the state of Missouri would help their increasing caseloads.

A 2020 report commissioned for the Missouri Association of Public Administrators highlighted how public administrators often do not have enough resources, “while navigating complex systems to provide care for their wards – while also facing increased pressure from the state and stakeholders to ensure all wards are placed in their least-restrictive alternatives.”

Former MAPA President and current Webster County Public Administrator Danielle Boggs said the individuals in her caseload who are not happy about what's going on in their case are vastly outweighed by the individuals who are satisfied with service from her office.

Boggs also said she does not see public guardianship as some sort of power grab from public administrators.

“We're not prowling the streets for people to serve as their guardian,” she said. “And I think that's the most common misconception.”

Boggs and Caudel also said they work with wards of the state and their families by aiming to help restore people into the community.

“I can't speak for other counties because I don't operate in their courts,” Boggs said. “I know restoration, it is not difficult in Webster County.”

St. Louis County Public Administrator and MAPA Vice President Tim Weaks echoed that he also works to restore people into the community or into family situations.

“We've had some successful restoration, no doubt about that. But not nearly as many as I'd love to see here,” Weaks said. “Unfortunately, it just, it takes a lot of time to get somebody to that point.”

Weaks said it is ultimately up to judges and courts on how guardianship cases proceed toward restoration.

All three also said they have seen cases where people’s rights are restored, only to return to public guardianship in the future.

They agree more education is needed about the role of guardians and said issues within Missouri’s public guardianship system should not be attributed solely to public administrators.

Private guardians, multiple state agencies and courts all have a role to play, they said.

GREG LEE ARRESTED

Butler’s guardianship case recently took another turn. Lee was arrested for trespassing after a nursing home worker in Lowry City, Missouri, at Truman Lake Manor called a deputy during his visit to see his mom. Lowry City is more than two hours away from Lee’s home. Lee believes his mom is kept far away to discourage his visits.

But he wants to see her.

Lee believes a court order from four years ago gives him the right to see his mom. He tried to explain to the deputy on his August visit, but he ended up with a trip to the St. Clair County jail.

Lee is currently facing two misdemeanor trespassing charges in St. Clair County.

Truman Lake Manor Administrator Tim Corbin declined to comment on Butler’s care to KMBC 9 Investigates, citing HIPAA medical privacy laws.

"In them fighting so much to keep me from seeing my mom, they've made it to where everybody's going to know," Lee told KMBC 9 Investigates.

"I won't quit,” he said. “I'm not going to stop until I can save at least one person. I hope it's my mom."

Throughout the next year, KMBC will continue to explore the challenges and opportunities for improvement in Missouri’s public guardianship system.

We need your help.

If you know of someone going through struggles with Missouri’s public guardianship system, or if you have a case to highlight that exposes solutions for Missouri’s public guardianship system that could teach lessons to others, please email investigates@kmbc.com 

Full Article & Source:
Paper Prisons: Missouri man continues fight to free his mother from public guardianship 

Nascent state Office of Public Guardianship confident in expansion | OPINION

by Stephanie Garcia

Unbefriended — that’s what our clients are called in medical and legal literature.

The veteran who suffers from PTSD and combat-related injuries. The elderly woman who suffers from dementia and a recent stroke. The person in their 20s living on the streets, incapacitated by mental illness or a traumatic brain injury.

Lacking family support, resources and stable housing, this medically fragile population doesn’t have a voice. There is no one there to advocate on their behalf to ensure their safety and well-being.

To respond to the growing rate of indigent and incapacitated adults — a population estimated at up to 3,736 individuals in Colorado — the state legislature funded the Office of Public Guardianship four years ago. These guardians secure appropriate housing/placement, medical and mental health care, assist with end of life medical care decisions and provide any other essential support and care necessary while safeguarding the client’s individual rights and independence whenever possible.

These extremely vulnerable individuals span every age group, although the average age range is 60 to 75 years old, and the most common diagnoses related to their loss of capacity are Alzheimer’s, dementia or other neurocognitive disorders or mental illness. More than 85% have at least one additional medical condition, and 44% have multiple medical problems. By the time a guardian is appointed, the majority of clients are either in high acuity settings such as hospital beds or experiencing homelessness. Some are at the end of their life when we are first appointed, soon passing away in a hospital or nursing home under the direct care and supervision of medical professionals.

As a newly created independent agency operating in seven counties, we have served more than 105 clients in the past two years with a small staff of four guardians and a case management aid. Clients are seen monthly and guardian-to-staff ratios are within best-practice standards. We have helped clients with mental health challenges and cancer find hospice care. We've helped a woman suffering from severe psychosis make a successful transition from a private home after a parent’s death to an assisted living facility. We've helped remove a client with dementia and other medical problems from her unsafe environment with her family to a skilled nursing facility. And we've provided emotional support and appropriate placement for a client in his 20s with severe mental illness, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse issues and multiple arrests.

Not only does appointing a guardian improve the quality of life for clients but it also helps ensure taxpayer money is used effectively and efficiently. For instance, by moving only nine clients from mental health institutions to assisted living and nursing homes, the state saved more than $3.5 million and opened up beds for those individuals who truly needed them. Guardians have decreased average days in the hospital by 57% for their clients and placed 15 people who were chronically homeless into stabilized housing. Beyond the costs avoided through placement of clients into appropriate housing settings, guardians also relieve some of the burdens borne by emergency rooms, 911 operators and calls to law enforcement.

Our guardians are on call 24/7 throughout the week and alternate on-call weekends. Like first responders and health care workers, guardians are underpaid, overworked and operate in crisis mode at all times, which can take a toll. Though some guardians have left during the last two years, others have joined, and we have long-term staff. We are actively recruiting more as our agency has a mandate to expand statewide by 2030. We face the same hurdles in recruiting and retaining employees as other public agencies since the pandemic. The state of Colorado had a 23% vacancy rate across the board last year and a 13% turnover rate overall. In human services, which also works with some of the state’s most vulnerable populations, that turnover rate was 20%.

We are confident we will be successful in expanding our services to people across the state, because in all honesty, we must be.

To thousands of Coloradans, our guardians are their last hope.

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Nascent state Office of Public Guardianship confident in expansion | OPINION

Self-described nurse arrested in the death of elderly woman in Huntington Beach

By Sara Cardine

A Huntington Beach woman was arrested on suspicion of murder Friday, after police responding to a call for service at a residence on the 6000 block of Tyndall Drive found the body of an elderly woman inside.

Christine Ann Lamphier, 48, was being held on $1-million bail Monday and due to appear in court Monday for an arraignment hearing, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Mike Woodroof.

A self-described nurse, Lamphier was taken into custody by Huntington Beach police and booked on suspicion of murder at 4:49 a.m. Friday, according to an arrest log maintained by HBPD.

The name of the victim, whom detectives believe to be an individual known to Lamphier, had still not been released by the coroner’s office Tuesday pending full confirmation of the woman’s identity, Woodroof reported.

In a criminal complaint filed Monday by the Orange County district attorney’s office, prosecutors allege Lamphier “did unlawfully and with malice aforethought kill Jane Doe, a human.”

“The offense involved great violence, great bodily harm, threat of great bodily harm and other acts disclosing a high degree of cruelty, viciousness, and callousness,” the complaint reads.

“It is further alleged that [Lamphier] has engaged in violent conduct which indicates a serious danger to society.”

In social media posts a woman named Christine Lamphier, who previously went by the surname Pettner, describes herself as a student of the now-defunct Santa Ana trade school Newbridge College, which reportedly dissolved in the years following a 2009 lawsuit filed by several former students.

Lamphier listed medical assistance and phlebotomy as courses of study on a Linkedin.com profile and also mentioned studying photography and photojournalism at Cal State Fullerton. It is unclear whether the relationship between Lamphier and the victim may have involved nursing or caregiving.

Orange County Superior Court records indicate Lamphier was previously at the center of a handful of hearings involving a mental health conservatorship in 2019, although the outcome of those proceedings, or whether Lamphier is or was the subject of public guardianship, are unknown.

She was arrested in August 2011 for driving under the influence of alcohol and later pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge and was fined and sentenced to 15 days in jail followed by three year’s probation, according to court records.

Investigators with HBPD’s Crimes Against Person Unit said in a release issued Saturday they believe Friday’s incident was isolated and does not present a threat to public safety. Anyone with information related to this crime is asked to contact Sgt. Anthony Pham at (714) 878-5640.

Updates

4:38 p.m. Nov. 21, 2023: This story was updated with information from a criminal complaint filed Monday by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and confirmation from the sheriff’s department Tuesday that the victim’s identity had still not been fully confirmed.

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Self-described nurse arrested in the death of elderly woman in Huntington Beach

Alaska’s outsourcing of guardianship led to dysfunction and debt

By Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage 

When the state of Alaska transferred dozens of public guardianship cases to a nonprofit last year, the results included extended hospital stays, thousands of dollars in debt and lapses in public benefits for some of Alaska’s most vulnerable residents.

That’s according to a recent story in the Anchorage Daily News. 

ADN reporter Iris Samuels says the state has been swamped with public guardianship cases in recent years, which led them to outsource dozens of them.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Iris Samuels: We’ve known for a while that the public guardian section in the Office of Public Advocacy is just buckling under way too many cases. They basically have so many cases that they can’t really handle them the way they should be handled. So that’s why they say that they transferred, or requested that the courts transfer, some of the cases that they were handling to this new private agency and this person who’s running it, Tom McDuffie, who said, “I can take these cases.” And this all happened last year in 2022. So Tom McDuffie started this new agency called Cache Integrity Services. And ultimately, all told, this private entity handled 110 cases or so. Some of them were taken from OPA. Some of them were people who would have otherwise paid for a private guardian.

Wesley Early: So what exactly went wrong with McDuffie’s clients?

IS: Basically, what we learned in this reporting is that he just bit off more than he could chew. And he would say that; that’s what he said to me when I spoke with him. And what that means is he had so many cases, and he just didn’t have the staff to handle it. He, at various points, didn’t have any staff at all. And with these guardianship clients, you have to be filing paperwork to get these public benefits that these people rely on. And when you have too many people, you just cannot file that paperwork fast enough. And in some cases, it seemed that no effort was made to reach out to these people.

So these are people for whom, again, a guardian is like their parent. The guardian makes all the decisions when it comes to health and finances. And when that paperwork isn’t filed, those decisions aren’t made. In some cases, clients were left in the hospital for months at a time when they should have been discharged because there was no one to discharge them. There’s no one to sign to approve a discharge.

WE: And I imagine that had a financial toll on some of them, too.

IS: Yeah, there were also cases where, you know, people had certain assets that needed to be sold, or the kinds of financial decisions that are made in the course of someone’s life that weren’t made. And when you push off these important decisions, it does lead to debt in certain cases. It prolongs debt in some situations where people were in debt and that debt needed to be resolved. And it wasn’t because, again, those decisions weren’t being made.

WE: So, is there any legal action related to this issue?

IS: Yeah, we already know there’s a couple of different cases, at least. Last year, the Northern Justice Project, which is a civil rights firm here in Anchorage, filed a lawsuit against the Office of Public Advocacy, basically saying that when OPA requested that all these cases be transferred to Cache Integrity Services, they did so in a way that violated the law, because they didn’t assign clients an attorney and didn’t accurately, or even in any way, explain to them the meaning of their care being transferred from someone who’s an employee of the state to someone who’s a private actor who may charge different fees, or just may act in a different way from what the public guardian might do.

And an Anchorage Superior Court has already determined that, at least in one case, the state is at fault for not appointing an attorney and not following the law. There is also another case where Cache Integrity Services was sued by one of their clients for failing to do what they’re supposed to do. And then several instances where judges have basically said, “We can see that Cache Integrity Services isn’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing, that Tom McDuffie didn’t do what he told the court that he would do,” and then Cache Integrity Services was removed as guardian. So there’s several fronts of legal action, but not really an overall solution to all of these people that the courts appointed MacDuffie to be a guardian in.

WE: We’ve heard reporting about backlogs at the Office of Public Advocacy with some blaming a lack of staffing there. Is that what’s going on here with guardianship, and what’s being done to fix the problem?

IS: Yeah, I think that’s a good question. The Office of Public Advocacy has said, actually, that they don’t think this is a staffing issue, that what they think is this is an issue with high turnover in the public guardian section.

So basically, it takes two years to train a public guardian. It takes a long time to learn all the things that a guardian needs to be able to do, and they can’t keep that staff long enough. I do think that this has to do with the staffing in the Office of Public Advocacy. And it may be a fact that you just cannot recruit the kind of people, the kind of skilled people, that you need to do this job well, for whatever reason. And I don’t know if that’s because the salaries aren’t commensurate with the work that needs to be done, or for other reasons of kind of mismanagement within the Office of Public Advocacy. That’s an open question, but I do think that, sort of like with other issues of social services the state needs to provide, there’s a question here of is the state investing enough resources to make sure that these services are provided effectively?

Full Article & Source:
Alaska’s outsourcing of guardianship led to dysfunction and debt

GOP lawmaker calls for scrutiny of DHHS after disclosure of eight public guardianship deaths

ByDavid Dahl - Samantha Hogan

 

Lawmakers have scheduled an Oct. 25 meeting with the department to explain how it handles guardianships and how it will comply with notification requirements.

“DHHS has been failing for years; and burying our heads in the sand and hoping things will change on their own is not an option," Sen. Stacey Guerin said during the address.

A Republican state lawmaker said the state’s top social services agency “deserves all the scrutiny we can muster” in light of a Maine Monitor investigation that found eight people in public guardianship died under unusual circumstances.

In the Republican party’s weekly radio address, state Sen. Stacey Guerin on Friday criticized the Department of Health and Human Services for not alerting lawmakers about the deaths, despite a law requiring notification.

“That law was established in 1997, but not a single report has ever been made. Clearly, the law is being ignored,” Guerin said in the address.

“What’s most disturbing is these deaths only came to light through an accidental release of records by the Maine Attorney General’s office when the news outlet was investigating the impact of Maine’s probate court system on the guardianship program. Otherwise, the public would never have known this situation even existed. Unacceptable,” said Guerin, who represents District 4, which includes all of Piscataquis County and 11 communities in Penobscot County.

The Monitor reported that eight incapacitated people in the state’s care died during the past three years and that authorities don’t know exactly how.

The adults, all under public guardianship, died of what medical examiners described as “undetermined” circumstances. Over-medication was the cause of several of those deaths. Among them is a woman whose death was deemed a “homicide” by medical examiners.

The attorney general’s office closed the homicide case without prosecution due to insufficient evidence, spokeswoman Danna Hayes said in late August. 

Hayes said that “due to a lack of evidence of criminal conduct,” several other cases “are not the subject of criminal investigations” by the office’s criminal division or Healthcare Crimes Unit, which is a specialized team that investigates abuse and neglect. 

Laurie Wall, 51, had cerebral palsy. She died of “acute intoxication” of multiple prescription medications at a foster home in Cornville on April 27, 2021, medical examiner records show. Wall is buried at East Ridge Cemetery in Cornville. A bouquet of purple fabric flowers is placed by her grave. Photo by Samantha Hogan.

Since the article was published, Senate President Troy Jackson said he was “alarmed” by the unexplained deaths. Other lawmakers suggested DHHS be broken apart or face regular scrutiny by an inspector general.

Lawmakers have asked for information about how the Probate Courts and Department of Health and Human Services handle public guardianship cases, and the agency’s plan to comply with the existing law that requires it to report these kinds of deaths to the legislative Health and Human Services Committee.

The law has not been followed in the more than 25 years since it was passed, the Monitor reported. The meeting is scheduled for Oct. 25.

“It is vital that Maine take steps to ensure that there is transparency and proper oversight of the public guardianship program. The death of any individual in state custody must be investigated to the fullest extent possible,” Jackson said in a statement after the Monitor story was published.

The Department of Health and Human Services is the largest executive branch agency in Maine. It employs around 3,000 people, and provides health and social services to approximately one-third of the state’s population, according to the state’s website.

In her radio address, Guerin noted the legislature is already investigating a series of child deaths through the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability.

“. . . we should probably add this to the pile of problems for a department that is obviously too large, too unaccountable and, according to some, should be broken up into smaller, more transparent agencies or have a greater level of oversight,” she said.

“Either way, we have to force change,” she said. “DHHS has been failing for years; and burying our heads in the sand and hoping things will change on their own is not an option.”

Full Article & Source:
GOP lawmaker calls for scrutiny of DHHS after disclosure of eight public guardianship deaths

See Also:
Eight deaths raise questions about oversight of Maine’s public guardianships