New York Laws
Article 81 - Proceedings for Appointment of a Guardian for Personal Needs or Property Management
81.22 - Powers of Guardian; Personal Needs.

(a) Consistent with the functional limitations of the incapacitated
person, that person's understanding and appreciation of the harm that he
or she is likely to suffer as the result of the inability to provide for
personal needs, and that person's personal wishes, preferences, and
desires with regard to managing the activities of daily living, and the
least restrictive form of intervention, the court may grant to the
guardian powers necessary and sufficient to provide for the personal
needs of the incapacitated person. Those powers which may be granted
include, but are not limited to, the power to:
1. determine who shall provide personal care or assistance;
2. make decisions regarding social environment and other social
aspects of the life of the incapacitated person;
3. determine whether the incapacitated person should travel;
4. determine whether the incapacitated person should possess a license
to drive;
5. authorize access to or release of confidential records;
6. make decisions regarding education;
7. apply for government and private benefits;
8. (i) for decisions in hospitals as defined by subdivision eighteen
of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-a of the public health law,
act as the patient's surrogate pursuant to and subject to article
twenty-nine-CC of the public health law, and (ii) in all other
circumstances, to consent to or refuse generally accepted routine or
major medical or dental treatment, subject to the decision-making
standard in subdivision four of section twenty-nine hundred
ninety-four-d of the public health law;
9. choose the place of abode; the choice of abode must be consistent
with the findings under section 81.15 of this article, the existence of
and availability of family, friends and social services in the
community, the care, comfort and maintenance, and where appropriate,
rehabilitation of the incapacitated person, the needs of those with whom
the incapacitated person resides; placement of the incapacitated person
in a nursing home or residential care facility as those terms are
defined in section two thousand eight hundred one of the public health
law, or other similar facility shall not be authorized without the
consent of the incapacitated person so long as it is reasonable under
the circumstances to maintain the incapacitated person in the community,
preferably in the home of the incapacitated person.
(b) No guardian may:
1. consent to the voluntary formal or informal admission of the
incapacitated person to a mental hygiene facility under article nine or
fifteen of this chapter or to a chemical dependence facility under
article twenty-two of this chapter;
2. revoke any appointment or delegation made by the incapacitated
person pursuant to sections 5-1501, 5-1601 and 5-1602 of the general
obligations law, sections two thousand nine hundred sixty-five and two
thousand nine hundred eighty-one of the public health law, or any living
will.

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