Pub­lic guardian­ship

A guardian or a donee ap­pointed un­der a last­ing power of at­tor­ney may be nec­es­sary when a per­son’s men­tal ca­pac­ity has de­graded due to a se­ri­ous ill­ness or old age to the de­gree that he or she is no longer ca­pa­ble of pro­tect­ing his or her in­ter­ests or tak­ing care of his or her per­sonal af­fairs.

A guardian is ap­pointed by the Dig­i­tal and Pop­u­la­tion Data Ser­vice Agency or a court. A pri­vate per­son such as a close rel­a­tive or an­other close per­son may act as a guardian.

The Dig­i­tal and Pop­u­la­tion Data Ser­vice Agency or the dis­trict court may also ap­point a pub­lic guardian to act as the guardian. The pub­lic guardian is usu­ally a pub­lic of­fi­cial em­ployed by a pub­lic guardian­ship of­fice. In some re­gions, a pub­lic guardian em­ployed by a provider of out­sourced ser­vices may also act as a pub­lic guardian.

A donee is al­ways a pri­vate per­son. A donee may over­see the in­ter­ests of a cer­tain per­son, if this per­son him­self or her­self, i.e. the donor, has made a last­ing power of at­tor­ney in case of a fu­ture loss of men­tal ca­pac­ity.

The Dig­i­tal and Pop­u­la­tion Data Ser­vice Agency pro­vides ad­vice and guid­ance in the pro­ce­dure for ap­point­ing a guardian.