387.500 Declaration of legislative purpose. (1) It is the intent and purpose of the General Assembly to recognize that disabled persons have varying degrees of disability. (2) Persons who are only partially disabled must be legally protected without a determination of total incompetency and without the attendant deprivation of civil and legal rights that such a determination requires. (3) To this end, guardianship and conservatorship for disabled persons shall be utilized only as is necessary to promote their well-being, including protection from neglect, exploitation, and abuse; shall be designed to encourage the development of maximum self-reliance and independence in each person; and shall be ordered only to the extent necessitated by each person's actual mental and adaptive limitations. (4) If the court determines that some form of guardianship or conservatorship is necessary, partial guardianship or partial conservatorship shall be the preferred form of protection and assistance for a disabled person. Effective: July 1, 1982 History: Created 1982 Ky. Acts ch. 141, sec. 1, effective July 1, 1982. Legislative Research Commission Note. The chairman of the guardianship subcommittee of the 1980-82 Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Statutes, in a letter to the Deputy Director and Reviser of Statutes, dated 2-7-86, has stated as follows: "As indicated in Senate Bill 35, in Section 1, 'Guardianship and conservatorship for disabled persons shall be utilized only as is necessary to promote their well-being, including protection from neglect, exploitation and abuse.'