He used her meager income to fund his alcohol and drug habits. When he was arrested, the disabled woman was found abandoned in a home infested with rats.

Although the woman said she wanted to remain at home with her neglectful son, the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) removed her from the home until her care could be resolved.

Maria Patton, director of the state's Vulnerable Adult Guardian ad Litem program, recommended that the woman be placed in a nursing home, and that the location be kept from her son. The courts agreed. The woman was also reunited with the rest of her family, whom the son had alienated.

In another case, volunteer Brenda Hyleman helped place a man in his 50s with a terminal neurological disease in a care facility that allowed him some independence — which he wanted — while receiving assistance. The man had been living in a trailer, but when conditions in his trailer became deplorable, neighbors called DSS.

15-county pilot

"There is a group of people who really do need assistance," said Hyle-man, one of 15 volunteers working with the Vulnerable Adult Guardian ad Litem pilot program in 15 South Carolina counties.

"It could be people in your own neighborhood that you don't even realize are having these issues," Hyleman said. "These are middle-class, upper-middle-class families that reach circumstances where they can't carry on … sometimes family members get enmeshed and don't see how bad it is."

It's the role of DSS to remove vulnerable adults from unsafe, neglectful or exploitative situations until a safe and secure environment can be found for them. It's the guardian ad litem volunteers' role to act as advocates during court proceedings that determine whether the person should be returned to the original caretaker, can live independently at home or needs some other environment.

A proposal to use volunteers as guardians was made by a task force after a 2009 state Supreme Court ruling that attorneys would no longer be appointed as guardians in DSS cases involving vulnerable adults. The program is based at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.

The program began in August 2011 and is scheduled to end after June 2013 if legislation isn't passed to reauthorize it. Supporters, including the University of South Carolina's Office for the Study of Aging and AARP South Carolina, would like to see it reauthorized and expanded statewide.

Next page: Acting as advocates. »