Background of The Office of the Public Guardian

The Office of the Public Guardian – Broward has been in existence for approximately 20 years providing guardianship services to individuals who reside in Broward County.  Since its inception, the Office of the Public Guardian has been serving adults 18 and over that have been deemed incapacitated by the court.  Individuals can be declared incapacitated for a variety of reasons.  The individuals served by the program may have a diagnosis of intellectual disability, a mental health diagnosis, traumatic brain injury, and/or a variety of other medical conditions, that make the individual incapable of managing their affairs. Guardianship is considered when an individual does not have any advance directives that indicate what they would have wanted with regards to a power of attorney and/or health care surrogate.

The Office of the Public Guardian-Broward is funded by the State of Florida Department of Elder Affairs Office of Public and Professional Guardianship.  The OPPG recently entered a contract with St. Thomas University College of Law to operate the Office of the Public Guardian in Broward County.  The funds received from the state allows for the incapacitated individual to be appointed a guardian to monitor their needs. The Office of Public Guardian consist of a team of six guardian representatives (master’s level social workers), a certified paralegal, a financial specialist (MBA), two administrative assistants all centrally located in Davie, Florida.  In addition, the program also contracts with a legal counsel who has been providing services for the program for several years.  The legal counsel has experience in elder law and Florida statute 744.

In 2018, the Office of the Public Guardian entered a contract with Broward County to add one guardian representative position to allow the program to accept 40 new cases.  With the funding from Broward County, the program was able to process and appoint a guardian to 40 residents of Broward County that were on the waiting list.

The Office of the Public Guardian continues to serve Broward County residents in need of guardianship services.  The program strives to maintain positive and collaborative relationship with different community providers such as group homes, nursing homes, ALFs, physicians, as well as Broward County Courts and other providers and referral sources.  The Office of the Public Guardian works closely with the clerk of courts and probate judges in the Broward County court system in the effort to comply with Florida Statute 744 as well as to serve our community.