What’s better, a Marchman Act or a Guardianship?

In this video, I want to talk to you about the Marchman Act and Guardianship and which one is better.

Perhaps the analogy I can make is the difference between a sports car and a pickup truck. They both have four wheels, they can both get you from a to b, but they are designed for different jobs. If you want to go ripping down a race track, you probably do not want a pickup truck; you want the sports car. If you are going to carry heavy loads, you probably do not want a sports car because there is no room for it. It is not designed to carry heavy loads, so you probably want a pickup truck. They are different tools, and we try to use the appropriate tool for the job. If all you need is an order for treatment for somebody who has a substance use disorder, we will use the Marchman Act. If we need an order where somebody doesn’t have substance use disorder, there is money involved, or we need access to medical records, we will use the Guardianship because it is a little bit broad in application. So, it really depends on what’s needed.

We do the best we can to triage the case when it first comes in, but when it comes to substance use, when it comes to mental illness, things are fluid. It’s not always clear right up at the beginning of the front of the case exactly what’s needed. So in the next video, I’m going to talk to you about when we might do Matchman Act and Guardianship. Together, they’re very powerful.

That is the basic difference between Marchman Act and Guardianship. One’s not better than the other. One is a sports car which is the Marchman Act and one is a pickup truck which is the Guardianship.

I hope that helps. See you in the next video.