Welcome to TGA’s Guardianship Academy, an online, on-demand education platform for guardianship education. Courses in the Academy have been recorded from previously offered TGA education webinars and conference sessions and some offer JBCC and/or MCLE continuing education credit.
How to Use
Select the course you would like to take and fill out the registration form. You will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to access the course materials and video. Courses include downloadable copies of materials included with the course. Upon completion of 90% of the video, you will receive a certificate of completion*.
Pricing
Sessions are priced based on hourly increments.
$45 per hour Regular Price
$25 per hour TGA Member Price
Courses Available
Guardianships: Tips from the Bench
Staff members of Sage Care Management discuss how to create a care plan for individuals with mental illness
Speaker: Byron Cordes, Sage Care Management
How can we empower individuals subject to guardianship proceedings? This session will address self-determination before, during and after guardianship proceedings for individuals with disabilities. Attorney panelists will discuss the law behind person-centered planning, alternatives to guardianship, and supports and services. The panelists with live experience will illustrate how supports and services work in practice. The session will use the individual’s bill of rights to demonstrate opportunities for person-centered planning and supports and services within the realm of guardianship.
Speakers: Hannah Cramer, J.D., Staff Attorney, Rio Grande Legal Aid
Taft Robinson, J.D., Staff Attorney, Disability Rights Texas
In this presentation, Hon. Judge Amanda Matzke will discuss scenarios commonly encountered in guardianship courts in Texas, from common to complex, and the techniques and strategies a judge may employ to resolve issues regarding the personal and financial well-being of individuals who come before the court.
Speaker: Hon. Judge Amanda Matzke
Mediation as an Alternative Process for Guardianship Dispute
Dr. Julia Hiner analyzes how normal aging involves complex physiologic and psychologic changes throughout the body, which although predictable across populations, are experienced in less homogeneous ways by individuals. Unlike cognitive disability, normal aging allows preservation of cognitive function and independence, without eventual incapacity. However, in cognitive disability of neurologic, cognitive, and psychiatric causes, there is a high degree of variability in long-term outcomes. Dr. Hiner explores normal aging versus cognitive disability, the prognosis of common cognitive disabilities, the treatments and supports needed to achieve optimal outcomes, and the likelihood of capacity restoration with guardianship reversal.
After completing this session, attendees will be better able to recognize normal and abnormal aging, anticipate long-term courses of common causes of incapacity and guardianship, and maximize a person’s opportunities for independent function and capacity restoration.
Speaker: Dr. Julia Hiner, M.D., Program Director, Geriatric Medicine Fellowship; UTHealth Houston, McGovern Medical School
The Master Pooled Trust (MPT) and other pooled trusts are great alternatives to the guardianship puzzle. We will discuss what a pooled trust is, how it differs from a traditional supplemental needs trust and how it fits into the guardianship landscape. Learn how a pooled trust can work for individuals and their families to protect funds, keep means-tested benefits, and potentially avoid guardianship – all while improving quality of life. You will also learn how future planning using a pooled trust can benefit the individual’s quality of life, in the long term, without the need for costly interventions.
Speaker: Haley Greer, Director, Arc of Texas Master Pooled Trust
In this presentation, Hon. Judge Amanda Matzke will discuss scenarios commonly encountered in guardianship courts in Texas, from common to complex, and the techniques and strategies a judge may employ to resolve issues regarding the personal and financial well-being of individuals who come before the court.
Speaker: Hon. Judge Amanda Matzke
Speakers from National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Texas discuss the following objectives:
- What the members of the guardianship community should be aware of as it relates to resources for individuals and families affected by serious mental illness.
- Skills and tools members of the guardianship community should have when interacting with individuals and families affected by serious mental illness.
- Issues that might apply to professional guardians when they are assigned as third-party guardians for a person with mental illness because family members are unable or unwilling to be the guardian.
Speakers: Greg Hansch, Executive Director, NAMI Texas
Jessica Miller, Program Director, NAMI Texas
Becca Ortiz, Operations Manager, NAMI Texas
Hon. Judge Amy Parsons discusses various areas of guardianship in Texas including:
- Guardianship law
- Common stumbles
- Guardians
- Applications
- Required appointments
- Capacity standard
- Hearings
- Causes of incapacity
- Physician examination
- Lesser restrictive alternatives
- Day in court
Speaker: Hon. Judge Amy Parsons, Harris County Probate Court
Two guardianship attorneys who are court staff will summarize 17 different legislative bills that, if passed, will affect guardianship practitioners and family guardians. The presenters are joined by Legislative staff and TGA members who testified in Legislative hearings during the 87th Legislative session and will discuss their experience during this year’s session. The presenters will also discuss issues anticipated to arise during the 88th Legislative Session in 2023.
Speakers: Steven D. Fields, J.D. Court Administrator/Senior Attorney, Tarrant County Probate Court #2
Terry W. Hammond, J.D. Guardianship and Probate Attorney, Brazos County Courts at Law; TGA Executive Director