At least two of those cases involved young adults with mental illness.  These are really hard cases all around because the court system often can't fully help these families.  I'm not talking about whether the families can find and fund treatment for their loved one.  Instead, the limitation of the probate court system is that it can't provide a mechanism to get the loved one treatment if he or she refuses.  

The probate court system can appoint a conservator for a mentally ill adult so that the conservator can apply for, receive and access governmental benefits and other resources that might be available.  The system can also appoint a guardian who can make most health care decisions for the mentally ill adult.  But Colorado statute prevents a guardian from having the ward committed to a mental institution against the patient's will.  The only way to do that is to initiate the standard mental health proceedings where the guardian has no additional rights or options than anyone else interested in the welfare of the mentally ill person. 

That's why in one case last week the mother of a young man sought guardianship only to the extent that she could review his medical records.  The mother's attorney made it clear that this was the best compromise they could reach, since if the son refused treatment for his mental illness the guardianship would be of limited value anyway. 

In another case a young woman in her late teens or early twenties was receiving treatment for substance abuse but there was a diagnosis of mental illness as well.  As is often the case, the young woman objected to the appointment of a guardian but even her efforts to dispute the need for the guardian merely reinforced her parents' argument that she could not make and carry out decisions for herself.  My heart broke for this young woman's family, especially her mother.  The daughter specifically objected to having the mother as a guardian, arguing that she and her mother didn't get along and her mother was too controlling. All of this in front of dozens of strangers who were waiting their turn to seek help for their own tragedy.

Sometimes there is no way to avoid these public airings of family struggles.  It may not always be possible to keep control of these situations in the hands of family and out of the hands of a judge.  That's because even the best estate planning document cannot wrest control away from a mentally incapacitated adult who won't acknowledge that incapacity.  Powers of attorney name an agent to act for you, but they don't keep you from acting on your own. 

That isn't to say that you shouldn't have powers of attorney and other planning in place to prepare for your possible disability.  They may well work to keep you out of probate court, the place some families find themselves when things have spiraled out of control.