As an adult guardian, Sonya Evans cares for her wards like she does her roses – tending to them with the upmost devotion.

“It’s become such a huge need because families have dispersed and are not involved very often anymore and people are left alone,” Evans said. “And so many of them just need a friend and need somebody to make sure they are well cared for, that they are being medically treated correctly, that they are leading as great a quality of life as possible. That’s our job.”

Evans is just one of nearly 11,000 guardians who took a six-hour fundamentals course provided by the Ohio Supreme Court. It’s a new course required by rules that went into effect last June. The Court’s Judicial College prepared the mandatory one-time course, which serves both attorneys and laypersons.

“Education is a tremendous tool and … serves a role to really help equip and prepare, and those guardians in this case, to provide the best care and management of those individuals in their care,” Judicial College Director Christy Tull said.

Other guardianship rules that took effect last year include probate courts adopting local rules to address emergency guardianship procedures and to establish a complaint process; and requiring guardians to take three hours annually of continuing education.

Tull said the Judicial College this month released the first of two continuing education courses offered for adult guardians. She said the college plans to add new courses each year to satisfy guardians’ specific needs. Local courts can also provide or approve other education classes for guardians.

Guardianship courses are important for maintaining competent performances of those working within the judicial system. Tull calls the past year a “success” in terms of education and meeting the need of guardians by delivering the fundamentals course live and online.

“We had one person write, actually it was in their evaluation, they wrote, ‘This course made me realize that I had to think more about my son’s rights then what I want him to do,’” Tull said.

Evans said the rights of adults under guardians’ care should be the same in every Ohio county. She has worked with four adults in 10-plus years as a volunteer guardian through the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging.

The agency’s volunteer guardian director, Julia Nack, is part of a committee that helped develop the state’s guardianship rules. She said the rules were eight years in the making.

ldquo;There were a lot of us who cared very deeply about reforming the guardianship work. I was very happy to see the rules adopted, and I think the commitment of the Supreme Court and of the probate courts I work with has been remarkable,” Nack said. “Guardianship is a difficult job. People need to be educated.”

Nack already trains more than 100 guardians through her volunteer program but said it’s a “wonderful beginning” to help guardians understand what their responsibilities are and what the best practice is through the Judicial College courses.

“I’m just thrilled that people have the support and information they need because of how serious of a responsibility this is, and it feels to me like people are taking the person under guardianship more seriously – understating there’s a real human life behind this court appointment, and that person is vulnerable and needs to be supported,” Nack said.

Evans visits the person under her legal care about once a week. She offers this advice to anyone considering getting into guardianship: “I’d tell them that they are going to learn a lot, that they are going to provide a service that’s absolutely essential, that they’re going to fall in love with the person that they’re serving, and that they’re going to get a lot of satisfaction out of being able to help the people that they’re serving.”

The National Center for State Courts estimates that there are about 40,000 Ohioans who need or have guardians across the state.

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