April 10, 2008
New professional guardianship program launched
As the baby boomer generation moves toward retirement and life expectancies grow longer, the percentage of Americans who are senior citizens will increase dramatically. With this change will come a greater need for professional guardians — and the UW is partnering with the state of Washington to answer that need.
A professional guardian is someone appointed by the courts to act on behalf of another person who has been found to be incapacitated — whether they are elderly, developmentally delayed or the victim of stroke or trauma. Guardians can be appointed for a person or an estate, or both. The Washington State Superior Court Web site explains, “In general, a guardian is responsible for the individual’s ‘care, custody and control’ while considering and respecting the individual’s preferences.” There are about 300 certified professional guardians currently working in the state.
Washington state became a leader by requiring certification for professional guardians beginning in 1998, upholding a model code of ethics and standards of practice with oversight by the courts. Many other states have followed Washington’s certification model.
But until this year the mandatory training for professional guardians has been a 16-hour course. This will change come fall when the UW Extension, a branch of UW Educational Outreach, begins a new, 90-hour mandatory training program for professional guardians that will be held twice a year. It’s a precedent-setting, multidisciplinary certificate program also sponsored by the UW schools of law, nursing and social work. The program works closely with the Certified Professional Guardian Board, state regulating body for such guardians.
The new program will be innovative in its curriculum, too, offering classes at Educational Outreach’s Bellevue facility as well as online. And while other states’ programs focus primarily on the legal and procedural aspects of professional guardianship, the UW program, while including that, also will add training in aspects of case management, health care, access to public services, family dynamics, fiduciary responsibility and more — with ethics being a major emphasis throughout.
Bill Anderson and Rebecca Kopelman, both assistant directors of Educational Outreach, co-manage the new certificate program. Anderson said the UW was chosen by the state for the program because it “provides a collaborative environment for assembling and activating the diverse range of disciplines that a guardian must know to effectively manage the affairs of an incapacitated person. These include social work, gerontology, law, ethics, medicine, psychology, nursing and finance.”
And since guardianship involves technicalities of the law, “the UW provides an excellent forum for organizations such as the judiciary, law associations, the state Legislature, social service agencies, nursing homes, the guardianship association and enforcement agencies to all actively participate in policy and/or implementation.”
David Szatmary, vice provost for Educational Outreach, said, “We are pleased to partner with the Certified Professional Guardian Board, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the UW schools of nursing, social work and law to develop a training program that will help protect the welfare of some of our state’s most vulnerable citizens.” Szatmary added, “One of our missions is to help share UW resources and expertise with the community, making a difference in people’s lives.”
Anderson also shared much credit for the innovative new program with “highly qualified faculty members” Lea Vaughn, associate dean and professor in the School of Law; Barb Cochrane, associate professor and director of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging in the School of Nursing; Nancy Hooyman, dean emeritus of the School of Social Work and Anjulie Ganti, the school’s director of continuing education.
To learn more about the Educational Outreach certificate program in professional guardianship, or to sign up for regular e-mail updates about the program, visit online here.
