Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Guardianship And Severely Chronically Mentally Ill Adults: A Measure Of Advantages And Disadvantageous In A Pair-Matched Records Review, James H. Hoerchler

Theses

This thesis examined adults with chronic severe mental illness and the use of legal guardianship executed to protect them from harming themselves or others, while attempting to improve their overall quality of life.

The earliest manifestation of mental health law appeared in the Roman Empire. The Romans established the legal use of surrogates to handle the property and commercial affairs of disabled citizens. By the sixteenth century England had developed standards of supervision by which a guardian might supervise a disabled person. The first guardianship recorded in America was decided under English law in 1637 in Jamestown, Virginia (Goldstein, Alan …