Guardianship AND guardianship alternatives
Advocating for patients with health conditions that prevent them from advocating for themselves.
Patients with low income and with conditions that impact their ability to make decisions, like Alzheimer’s and dementia, face numerous hurdles to accessing much needed support and services. NYLAG has researched the needs of patients with diminished or absent capacity and found that there are currently no places for their families to turn to when a loved one loses capacity. Families that want to help are unable to do so because of legal barriers to accessing care without appropriate authority.
NYLAG is developing a program that will assist these families though guardianship alternatives and, when necessary, guardianship petitions with the goal of providing the greatest quality of life in the least restrictive setting for these patients.
This program will:
- Educate healthcare workers about the need for advance directives and the alternatives to guardianship
- Provide training to immigration attorneys on the risks of patients losing capacity on immigrants’ rights
- Assist family members of patients without capacity petition for guardianship
- Develop alternatives to guardianship that are less restrictive
