The University of Kentucky and the ABA Commission on Law and Aging released a new report in January, entitled "Public Guardianship After 25 Years: In the Best Interest of Incapacitated People?" The report presents the findings of Phase II of the National Public Guardianship Study, funded by The Retirement Research Foundation.



Authored by Pamela Teaster, Erica Wood, Winsor Schmidt and Susan Lawrence, the report includes extensive site visit studies of seven programs; an update on state models of public guardianship or guardianship of last resort; conclusions and recommendations, a model public guardianship act; statutory and programmatic profiles of each state's system of public guardianship or guardianship of last resort; and statutory charts.



The report is a snapshot of public guardianship as it stands now, in comparison with the original landmark study by Prof. Winsor Schmidt in 1981. Key among the findings are:



-Great variability in the jurisdictions examined;



-Many dedicated individuals and entities working to improve the lives of the incapacitated adults they serve;



-Staffing patterns and funding levels relative to the caseloads at levels often far too low to enable the provision of quality guardianship services;



-Oversight rare and data collection frequently inadequate;



-Far more young adults served and with increasingly complex problems; and



-More public guardianship programs, with nearly every state having some form of public guardianship or provisions for guardianship of last resort, but with vast areas remaining unserved or underserved. The unmet need is compelling.



For the Executive Summary of the report, see http://www.abanet.org/aging/docs/Guard_report_Exec_Summ.pdf. For more information, or to order print copies of the executive summary for $5 and the Full Report for $30, contact the ABA Commission at abaaging@abanet.org.