Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government, Social Services

A rare conviction and tearful Capitol testimony are intensifying pressure to reform Colorado’s guardianship system

It was a call about an unpaid bill from her mother’s doctor that led Barb Dowski to begin unraveling the deception. Dowski tried to question her mother’s court-appointed conservator, who was in charge of paying those medical bills and the rest of Barbara Moore’s finances, but got no answers. So she headed down a paper […]

Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government

Colorado’s controversial public guardianship program scrutinized in legislative budget battle

A controversial plan to expand Colorado’s fledgling public guardianship program for people who have no family or friends to speak for them is in jeopardy as state lawmakers debate the state’s budget. The Office of Public Guardianship, which began taking wards in 2020, is now making decisions for about 70 people who are unable to […]

Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government

Colorado plans to expand experimental adult guardianship program despite complaints, scrutiny

The 73 adults assigned a guardian through a new state agency have dementia, intellectual disabilities, brain injuries and mental illnesses severe enough that a court has deemed them unable to make their own decisions.  None have family or friends to care for them, so they have become wards of the Colorado Office of Public Guardianship, […]