National Conference on Guardianship

How to Recognize Body Language Cues and Present Your Best Self
Patti Wood, MA | The Gold Standard of Body Language Experts

In each minute of interaction, you have the potential to share up to 10,000 nonverbal cues. Understanding and using the secrets of nonverbal communication can enhance your listening ability and the way you’re perceived and understood. As a guardian, you are interacting with people all day long: explaining options to clients, listening to their preferences, and advocating for them. In addition, you are often working with family members, addressing the court, working with medical professionals, and more. Do people understand you accurately? Are they persuaded by your messaging? Would you like to improve your understanding of what clients are really saying? In this unique program, you will “experience” accurately reading and using these cues to enhance your communication skills and discover methods to be more receptive and open to others. You will walk out of the program with your eyes and ears open with action steps ready to take your communication to the next level.

Fiduciary Reporting
Jennifer A. Davison, NCG
Tandem Fiduciary Services

This presentation is designed to provide fiduciary
reporting skills and techniques for trustees, conservators/guardians, and anyone else required
to provide financial reports. A case study of a
fiduciary report will be reviewed and discussed
to identify strengths and weaknesses and techniques for improving the report.

Stepping Down from Guardianship
Lisa Wawrzonek, MS
Alaska Court System

Knowing when a guardianship can be reduced or dismissed can be tricky if the individual doesn’t have a clear recovery from their disability or diagnosis. Setting up a “step down” plan might give the family, guardians and court the information needed to make a safe and ethical determination.

Medical Guardianship: A Successful
Collaborative Model Between the
Court and an Academic Health System
Alethia J. Battles, JD, LMSW
University of Michigan – Michigan Medicine
Teresa A. Killeen, Esq.
Washtenau County Trial Court

Medical and legal challenges often occur at the cross-section between clinical care and statutory boundaries. This presentation will review a collaborative model that has improved outcomes, streamlined processes, and created strategic partnerships between the health system and the legal system.

• Ethical Dilemmas in Guardianship
• Irene Rausch, NMG
  Professional Guardian

This presentation will focus on five case studies that cover various ethical dilemmas that may arise in guardianship practice. The issues cover confidentiality, determining residence, making medical decisions, and end of life decisions. The presenter will present the dilemma, discuss factors that need to be determined in order to resolve the issue, and the resolution. Reference to the appropriate NGA Standards of Practice will be included.

Navigating and Preserving Government Benefits
Cameron Lindahl
Comerica Bank

Navigating needs-based benefit eligibility can be cumbersome and the solutions are often expensive. This presentation will provide tools to identify and protect eligibility in a cost-effective manner. These tools will include a flowchart to identify eligibility, guides for ABLE accounts, spend down instructions, and questions for trustees.

• Coordinating Assessments and In-Patient Treatment for the High Functioning, but Highly Resistant, Person with Mental Health Issues
  Roger T. Coventry, MBA, JD
  Coventry, Vernon, & Roberts, LLC
  Sharon A. Bell, PsyD
  Associates in Health Psychology

Coordination is crucial for a detailed assessment and admission to an in-patient mental health treatment facility, for a person who may be a danger to self and/or others. The presentation will focus on the planning and logistics that help lead to a safe and appropriate admission.

• Assessment Fundamentals: What to Look for When Evaluating a Facility or Client
• James Alaniz
  The Good Shepherd Fund

This session will present a clear and concise guide to initiating and documenting an assessment of both the facility and the person when choosing and evaluating a placement. Not every client can assess or choose for themselves what type of facility they want to live in, so it is vitally important that you have a good understanding of your client’s needs, both mentally and physically, so that placement will be beneficial to everyone involved.

• Successor Fiduciary Issues: Taking Over a Disaster
• Peter J. Wall
  True Link Financial Advisors, LLC

Accepting appointment as successor trustee or fiduciary comes with a unique set of challenges. Difficulties including prior accounting complications, investment considerations, beneficiary expectations, public benefits issues, and tax filings (among other issues) can derail proper administration from the onset of a relationship and may expose a successor trustee to heightened liability. This presentation will provide insights and case studies (and case law updates) while providing best practice tips and problems anticipated before accepting appointment.

• Coping with Disenfranchised Grief as a Guardian
  Stephanie M Parker
  Paramount Guardianship Services
  Laura L. Klein, LCMHC
  Light After Loss

As a guardian, you may experience disenfranchised grief, a type of grief that is not openly acknowledged or socially recognized. This session will provide you with strategies to cope with this type of grief, including how to acknowledge your grief, seek support, create a memorial, take care of yourself, and find meaning in your loss. Through this session, you will learn ways to work through the challenges of disenfranchised grief and find healing. Join us to discover how you can cope with disenfranchised grief and gain the tools you need to move forward with your grief.

• How to be a Guardian to Someone with Hoarding Disorder
• Frances Piekarski, NCG, CDP, CCA
  Life with Dignity

Learn from this presenter’s decades of experience in working with people afflicted with hoarding disorder. Participants will learn effective and strategic methods for working with individuals with this disorder compassionately and with dignity.

• End-of-Life Dilemmas for Guardians: Comfort vs Suffering, Identifying End-of-Life Symptoms, and Unusual Burial Customs
• Mari Adams MSN-Ed., BSN, RN, CHPN
  Chapters Health System

This presentation addresses the ethical, and often
difficult, decisions that guardians face regarding
comfort and end-of-life care. In addition, it will
address unusual burial and funeral customs for
diverse populations.

• Can This Person Have Sex? Legal and Other Implications for Autonomy of Individuals Under Guardianship
• Alethia J. Battles, JD, LMSW
  University of Michigan – Michigan Medicine

Statutory provisions ensure that a guardian’s authority represents the least restrictive means of alternative decision making for their clients. What about sexual intercourse and reproductive rights? Is this a decision for the person with a guardian, the guardian, or the courts?

• Walking the Tight Rope: Self-Determination and Dignity of Risk vs. Supervision and Protection
• Heather Allin, MSA, NCG
  Vermont Office of Public Guardian
  Ben Chater, JD
  Office of the Vermont Attorney General

As guardian, do you ever feel conflicted or overwhelmed managing the competing duties of honoring a person’s right to self-determination while simultaneously ensuring their safety and wellbeing? We will discuss this ethical and legal quandary and present a case study.

• Minnesota’s Conservatorship Account Audits and Guardianship Monitoring
• Jamie Majerus, CPA, CIA, CFE
  Minnesota Judicial Branch
  Heather Scheueman
  Minnesota Judicial Branch

The Minnesota Judicial Branch implemented software and centralized audit/monitoring units over
conservatorships and guardianships. In this session you will learn about the software used, audit/review processes, red flags, budget, statistics,
concerns identified, and real-life stories, tips, and
tricks to prepare for your audit and review.

• Lawyers, Guns & Money: What to do with Troubled Assets
• Frank R. Acuña, Esq.
  Acuña Regli, LLP

You have a new case involving real estate that was used as an automotive graveyard, a junkyard dog, and the property is protected by Smith & Wesson. What will you do? Professional fiduciaries often take control of assets that are difficult to manage or to transfer. This session will look at a number of “troubled assets,” the legal requirements of dealing with them, and how to do so with the least amount of potential liability possible.

• Leveraging Your Guardianship Expertise to Support Family Guardians
• Bradley Loliger, Esq., MSW
  Center for Elder Law & Justice
  Christopher J. Phillips, Esq.
  Center for Elder Law & Justice

This session will provide practical tools and recommend strategies that experienced guardians can employ to empower family guardians to prevent common pitfalls and avoid exploitation. The presenters will explore ethical principles and liability concerns, pulling from a replicable family guardian support project based in Western New York.

• Playing God? The Ethical Conflicts in End-of-Life Decisions
• Hon. Marian Parker
  Probate Court of Fulton County
  Sarah White
  Probate Court of Fulton County

Ethical issues in guardianship come into sharp relief during end-of-life decisions. Family members are informed by their social, cultural, and religious upbringing, and healthcare professionals must abide by their own ethical and legal obligations. Fiduciaries must anticipate these conflicts, provide realistic solutions, and engage the courts to protect the person. This presentation will include a highly charged case study, and participants will practice their own decision-making throughout the session.

• Disaster Planning for Guardians
  Mary Galvez, MA, CMC, NMG, CSA
  Guardianship and Care Management Services, LLC

Natural disasters, crises, pandemics, violence, and civil unrest! These stories occupy the front page of all of our newsfeeds. As guardians, how can we address our clients’ needs during these times? This session will inform and enable you to create a suitable disaster/emergency plan for the individuals whom you serve.

• Protection and Advocacy Systems and Adult Protective Services Collaboration to Deflect from Guardianship
  Cathy Bahadur
  Georgia Deptartment of Human
  Services, Division of Aging Services
  Dana Lloyd
  Georgia Advocacy Office

Through collaboration, Georgia’s Protection and Advocacy system and Division of Adult Protective Services developed a process of training and evaluation that strives to connect vulnerable people to services and support that meet their needs and avoid guardianship. Participants will review practical tools for identifying collaborators and building partnerships.

• Optimizing Disability Benefits: An Overview of Social Security Disability (SSDI / SSI) for Guardians and Conservators
  Sharon Reich, CTFA, CSA
  AGED, Inc.
  Grayson Smith Cannon, Esq.
  Gullett, Sanford, Robinson & Martin PLLC

This presentation will explain the Social Security disability benefit system to explore the differences between Social Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Learn how disability is determined, what the differences and similarities are between each program, when each benefit comes into play, and how the programs relate to other areas of law. Practical information will be provided about optimizing benefits for a client and/or their family, maximizing healthcare benefits, and exploring interactions between benefits and other areas of the client’s financial world.

• Best Practice: Conflicts of Interest
  Frank R. Acuña, Esq.
  Acuña Regli, LLP

Conflicts of interest are tricky! They can arise in a variety of contexts and can take a guardian by surprise! This course will examine various types of conflicts of interest, how they arise, and how to resolve them (while avoiding personal liability in the process). Be prepared for a lively discussion of one of the most common ethical traps that exist!

• Supported Decision-Making: What it is, isn’t, and Tools You Can Use Right Now
  Elizabeth Moran, JD
  The Arc of Colorado
• Megan Rusciano, JD
  The Arc of the United States

Supported decision-making (SDM) and SDM agreements are commonly known as less restrictive alternatives to guardianships and conservatorships. This session will explore the nuances and “how to’s” behind passing legislation that codifies this alternative support system, provide discussion around tools you can use right now to get started using SDM and related agreements, and present 5 things you can do to ensure families, attorneys, and court personnel in your state are aware of this alternative and how it seeks to promote human and civil rights while allowing for the human dignity of risk taking both within and outside of guardianship.

• When You Are Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Identifying and Recovering from Burnout
  Joyce McHugh, MSW, LSW, BSW
  Advocate Care Services

Burnout is real and impacts yourself and your clients. We often do not recognize the signs or symptoms until we are in a crisis. With the revision of the NASW Code of Ethics in 2021, self-care became a must-do, not a “when I have time” issue. We are going to dig deep into identifying triggers, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and how burnout can impact our decision-making process. We will discuss ideas for avoiding burnout and form a care plan. This session will benefit everyone but be prepared to discuss advanced triggers, trauma, and ways to talk about it with others!

• National Investigator Training for Guardians
  Kelly Cornelius, CPA, CIA, CIGA, CIGI, CFE,
  CFF, CVA, CGMA, CPM
  Walton County Clerk of Courts & Comptroller
  Linda Moros, CIGA, CIGI
  Brevard County Clerk of the Circuit Court &
  Comptroller

NGA recognized that the skills and techniques utilized by guardianship investigators, auditors, and monitors are transferrable to guardians and others serving and protecting the safety, health and welfare of significantly incapacitated persons. Containing portions of the 3.5-day National Investigator Training program which is offered separately during NGA’s conference, this session will teach guardians, attorneys, advocates, and other stakeholders some of the core competencies for guardianship and conservatorship auditing and investigating. For example, participants will learn how to obtain truthful information through “conversating,” independent verifications, fraud investigating techniques, and accounting basics.

• Successful Transition from Guardianship to a Supported Decision-Making Model to Independence: A Case Study
• Shannon Butler, NMG | Ethical Solutions
  Kerry Gerber | Restored to Capacity in 2020

Kerry, in her own words, will take you through her life journey. She will address her traumatic childhood and being a young adult “in the system” with a guardian. She will also detail her struggles while growing up and working with her guardian to develop skills that have allowed her to become more and more independent, contributing toward her amazing story that continues to unfold. Shannon, her former guardian of 17 years, will share how she helped to support and guide Kerry through her challenges to assist her in overcoming some very large obstacles to achieve her dreams.

• “Getting to Yes”: Overcoming the Challenges to Enacting the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act (UGCOPAA)
• Erica C. R. Costello, JD, NCG | ABA Commission on Law and Aging
• Robert B. Nettleton, JD | Harlowe & Falk LLP
  Benjamin Orzeske, JD | Uniform Law Commission
  Elizabeth Russo, JD, NCG | ABA Commission on Law and Aging

Participants will learn successful strategies for enacting UGCOPAA. Panelists from national organizations, including the Uniform Law Commission and the American Bar Association, will share ideas for identifying resources and creating political will to pass the “gold standard of guardianship reform.”