CREATING PUBLIC VALUE FOR

GUARDIANSHIP SERVICES IN OHIO

SUMMARY OF NON-ATTORNEY, NON-FAMILY

GUARDIANSHIP SERVICES IN OHIO

Compiled under the auspices of the Ohio Guardianship Association

September, 2005

Introduction

The Ohio Guardianship Association (OGA) has existed informally for over ten years.  In 2004, OGA became incorporated as an Ohio not-for-profit corporation.  The Association now has many members of which 19 represent programs in Ohio that provide guardianship services by guardians who are neither an attorney nor a family member.  Attachment 1 contains a list of all programs providing services in Ohio.  The * indicates that they provided information for this survey.

The following data were provided to the Ohio Guardianship Association in August and September of 2005.  Not all questions were answered by all respondents.  Some questions had multiple responses per respondent.  Attachment 2 contains a copy of the survey questionnaire.

Number of Programs and Their Service Areas

Of 19 programs in Ohio that are providing guardianship services, 15 provided data for this survey.  Advocacy and Protective Services, Inc. (APSI) operates in every county in Ohio.  The 14 other programs provide services in one or only several counties.  The reporting non-APSI programs provide services in the following 21 counties: Butler, Clark, Champaign, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Erie, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Huron, Lorain, Montgomery, Muskingum, Pickaway, Richland, Seneca, Stark, Summit, and Warren.  The following four counties have programs but did not respond to the survey: Ashtabula, Geauga, Summit, and Trumbull. The following seven counties are some phase of establishing a guardianship program: Clinton, Guernsey, Holmes, Lake, Lucas, Mahoning, and Medina.  If a county is not listed (56), a program has not been identified that serves that county.  

Type of Sponsoring Organization

Twelve of the 15 programs are private, not-for-profit affiliated and the remaining three are government-affiliated.

Length of Providing Service

The program operating the longest is APSI, for 24years. Several programs have only begun providing services this past year.  The average is 11.5 years in operation.

Types of Services Provided

Fourteen of the 15 programs provide guardian of person services.  One program is not providing services yet.  Only six programs do guardian of estate. Seven do conservatorships.  Five provide representative payee services.  One does power of attorney.  One also does trusteeships.

Types of Clients Served

Thirteen programs reported serving elderly individuals.  Nine provide services to individuals with a MR/DD diagnosis. Ten serve people who are severely mentally disabled. Ten serve people with a traumatic brain disorder.  Ten also serve those with multiple sclerosis or some other neurological disorder. 

Age of Clients Served

None of the programs reporting serve anyone under the age of 18.  Ten serve those who are 18 and older.  Two programs have admission criteria of 55 and older.  Three serve only those 60 and older.

Number of Clients Served

In a typical 12-month period, these 15 programs serve approximately 5,900 wards.  About 73% of all clients are enrolled with APSI.  About 814 new clients are admitted by these 15 programs annually and approximately 5,100 cases carry-over from the previous year.  It was difficult to determine how many wards are on a waiting list at this time.

Diagnostic Categories of Wards of These Programs

Programs decide what populations they will serve.  It is difficult to divide individuals into discreet categories since many span several diagnoses.  However, the following describes best how programs identify their clients.

Elderly:  For four programs, 100% of their wards are elderly. 

Mental Retardation/Developmental Disability (MR/DD):  One program serves only people with MR/DD (some with a dual diagnosis) while six additional programs have between 2% and 20% of their clients with a diagnosis of MR/DD. 

Severely Mentally Disabled (SMD):  Seven programs have between 10% and 50% of their wards with this diagnosis.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Less than 5% of the caseloads of five programs have a diagnosis of TBI.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS):  Less than 2% of the caseloads of five programs have a diagnosis of MS or some other neurological disorder.

Wards with a Dual Diagnosis

Increasingly programs are working with wards who have a dual diagnosis: MR/DD and SMD, elderly with SMD, or some other combination.  Programs reported that between 10% and 100% of their wards has a dual diagnosis, with an average of 46%.

Percent of Wards Who are Indigent

Most of these programs were established for the purpose of serving those who do not have the financial resources to pay for a guardian and for individuals without a family member or an appropriate family member to be the guardian.  On average, 92% of all the wards served by these programs are indigent (assets of $10,000 or less).

Staffing of These Programs

These are approximately 93 full-time equivalents acting as guardians with the fifteen reporting programs.  The vast majority, 82% (N=76) are employees of APSI.  The average guardianship caseload is 45.  In addition there is approximately 50 additional administrative staff providing support to these programs in many different capacities.

Ten program report utilizing volunteers.  There are about 530 volunteers affiliated with these ten programs, ranging from 10 to 130 volunteers per program.  Most volunteers manage only one case but the average is 1.4 cases per volunteer.

Funding for These Programs

Over fourteen different funding sources were identified by the fifteen reporting programs for a typical 12-month period.  One program provided a total program budget but did not differentiate among possible sources.

State: One program reported receiving funds from the state of Ohio, representing $5,100,657.

County Probate Court:  Eight of 13 programs receive funding from a county probate court, most often from the Indigent Guardianship Fund.  The amount ranges from $2,000 to $325,000 for a total of $451,915.

County Mental Health Board:  Five programs receive funds from a county mental health board, ranging from $11,000 to $60,000 for a total of $117,480.

Other County Funds: Eight programs identified other sources within their county that provided funds including the county mental retardation board, department of senior and adult services, Title XX, APS in two counties, and Jobs and Family Services ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 for a total of $195,323.

City:  No program identified funding from a city government.

Area Agency on Aging:  Three programs receive funds from an area agency on aging, ranging from $11,208 to $42,775 for a total of $78,783.

United Way Services:  Five programs receive funds from a United Way agency, ranging from $15,000 to $125,000 for a total of $264,998.

Hospital:  Five programs receive funds from hospitals ranging from $1,500 to $57,400 for a total of $123,900.

Nursing Homes:  Five programs receive funds from nursing homes ranging from $1,000 to $134,000 for a total of $177,000.

Foundations:  Five programs receive funds from foundations ranging from $10,000 to $155,776 for a total of $229,776.

Fees for Services:  Four programs charge a private fee for the service, ranging from $3,000 to $242,100 for a total of $416,791.

Individual Donation:  Two programs receive individual donations to their program ranging from $2,000 to $8,317 for a total of $10,317.

Fund Raising Events:  Four programs receive funds from fund raising events ranging from $1,000 to $24,725 for a total of $30,725.

Other Sources:  The following additional sources of funds were identified: elder levy, major church body, and the Kiwanis Club ranging from $1,500 to $45,000 for a total of $203,831.

Dollars Allocated to Guardianship Services in Ohio

Approximately $7,400,000 is utilized by these 15 programs to provide guardianship services to incompetent Ohioans.  Approximately 70% of all guardianship services is funded by the state of Ohio ($5,100,000), earmarked to serve one exclusive population, those individuals with mental retardation or developmental disability.  Approximately 30% of guardianship services are provided by other not-for-profit and government programs scattered throughout the state, used to serve all non-MR/DD incompetent individuals, funded by numerous sources, representing $2,300,000. 

Conclusion

While guardianship services to the indigent in Ohio reaches approximately 6,000 individuals a year, the vast majority of all guardianship service is provided to the MR/DD population and all state dollars are restricted to this population.  The MR/DD population is served throughout the state. 

Guardianship services to all other populations in Ohio (elderly people with dementia, people who are severely mentally disabled and other people with other diagnoses such as TBI, and MS) are extremely limited and provided sporadically throughout the state.  No state funds are allocated to these populations except those with a dual diagnosis with MR/DD.

No projections have been made of the number of individuals in Ohio who are likely to need a guardian in the future, but statistics demonstrate that the number of referrals is growing significantly each year.  How this growing need is met is a county-by-county decision at this time.