Guardians

Incapicitated is the term use for a person in need of a gaurdian. These individuals are dependent on others to provide basic assistance with managing money, medical care and physical needs. Typically incapicitated individuals have a memory or mental impairment that blocks their ability to care for themselves.
When there is no family available to assist these individuals a guardianship can be set up to assist the individual with care needs. Additionally, there is a small portion of incapicitated persons that have been victims of abuse or neglect by family care givers. These individuals are also an unfortunate population which the guardianship service can step in assist along side with adult protective services. Sometimes guardians are sought out when their is a family member who themselves have become disabled and can not keep up with needs of there disabled family member. The cost out of pocket is 10,000 to pay for this process to get a court appointed guardian. However a guardianship can be asigned by the state with out this cost as well. More details are on this website. It takes a court appointment to remove the guardianship or change the guardian to another individual. I have had patients with guardians that did not respond to their medical needs and it placed patients in a precarious position.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/programs_orgs/guardian/index.cfm
Joanne Gigi Hardtke