Recently I took a survey on improvements to current guardianship laws and this is my Christmas wish list for federal and state laws:

Every guardianship statute should say it is the public policy of the state: 1) to have family members serve as guardians over non family members; 2) that wards should never be moved to institutions against their will; 3) that disabled persons should always be placed in the least restrictive environment; 4) that no disabled person should be restrained with chemical or other restraints and the use of psychtropic drugs is illegal; 5) waiver of any substantive rights (ie, right to an attorney, right to a trial, right to a jury) shall be recorded by a GAL or attorney for the disabled and made available publicly; 6) volunteer guardians and attorneys shall be preferred over for profit guardians and attorneys and the state shall institute programs to recruit…