Jewish Family & Children's Service of Pittsburgh

Guardianship of Person

JF&CS's duties as guardian of person include developing, coordinating and monitoring professional services needed by the ward, such as determining and monitoring residential care; consenting to and monitoring medial care and non-medical services such as education, training, social/wellness opportunities and counseling; and making end-of-life decisions.

How We Protect the Well-Being of Our Clients

• Experienced guardianship caseworkers act as surrogate decision makers, always makings decisions they believe as closely as possible reflect what the ward would have decided if he or she were capable of making the decision and maximize the independence of—and are in the "best interest" of—the ward.
• Ward has benefit of guardianship case workers' in-depth knowledge of community resources and skill at advocacy and service coordination, as well as access to the multiple other services of JF&CS including care coordination and caregiver services, clinical services, JF&CS's food pantry and more.
• At least once annually, JF&CS reports to the court on the ward's situation and the social, medical, psychological and other support services he or she is receiving. For individuals in our public guardianship program, additional oversight is provided by the county and state.
• The Guardianship program follows all standards set forth by the National Guardianship Association, State and County Guidelines.
• JF&CS Guardianship caseworkers are on call 24/7.
• JF&CS Guardianship caseworkers serve a diverse population and are sensitive to all religious and cultural practices.

Meet the People We Help

• Tom* was living in an institution with bipolar disorder, mild mental retardation and psychogenic polydipsia. His family was not getting him the help he needed and JF&CS was appointed Guardian of Person. Now he works a part-time job, lives in a group home where he receives one-on-one attention and his biggest concern is where he’s going to take his next vacation or what concerts he’s going to see next summer.
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• JF&CS was appointed Guardian of Person and Estate for Dana*, who is mentally retarded. Dana had previously been taken advantage of by a string of legal guardians who had been appointed after her parents passed away.
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*Name changed to protect client confidentiality.

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