Die Reform des Betreuungsrechts

The reform of the guardianship law has been decided! The reform will come into force on 1 January 2023. The content of the guardianship law will not be completely restructured. The tense relationship between the protection of the person against decisions not made on his or her own responsibility and the self-determination of the person will be consistently further considered and strengthened in favor of the self-determination of the person concerned. Supportive decision making, the consideration of a person’s wishes, the abandonment of the term (and concept of) “well-being” as a measure for guardianship are some examples; however, the new law also sets boundaries in adhering to a person’s wishes. Namely, if they are associated with the risk of significant harm to the person or his or her property. The article first presents the main objectives of the reform. Based on this, the focal points are the deletion of the word “well-being”, the regulation of the proxy power of attorney and measures for greater consideration and better implementation of the principle of the necessity, which is central to the guardianship law. Critical comments are made on the newly introduced spousal representation law and its significance for the psychiatric practice. As a result, it can be stated that there will be hardly any significant changes in healthcare and even less so in the area of coercive measures. It remains to be seen whether the legislator’s welcome concern to avoid guardianship through improved information and counselling on social rights will be achieved in practice. The same certainly applies to the strengthening of supported decision making, the idea of which is also to be welcomed but is still looking for a gold standard for practice.