Legal Question in Health Care Law in Massachusetts

Re: Medical care

There is something you can do: become his legal guardian. The guardianship can be limited to psychotropic medication decisions, hospitalization, both, or other limits or no limits.

If he is under your guardianship and you die before he does, someone else will have to assume guardianship.

You will need a physician to sign a document that he is in need of a guardian, even if limited to a "Rogers" guardianship (medication/institutionalization). He can consent to a guardianship if he is competent to do so.

The worst part of a parental guardianship is the tendency to make all decisions for the ward (son) once you seem to have the power to do so. You have to give the ward as much autonomy as possible, even making mistakes, to be a responsible guardian, in my view, since the more he can do on his own, the better for him. You will not always be there with him.

The forms for petition for guardianship are available at any probate court. I can do all or part of the legal work. I have been representing families of and mentally ill/retarded persons for 33 years.