This text fills a longstanding gap in the legal and medical practitioner's working library. It offers practical guidelines to legal and medical practitioners, health professionals, social workers, carers and people with mental disabilities in dealing with the issues that arise when it is proposed to make a person a ward of court and when that person is taken into wardship. The work includes commentaries on current wardship powers and procedures and an outline and commentary on proposals for reform of the system. It also examines the alternatives to wardship and sets out the procedures for executing and enforcing enduring powers of attorney. Foreword by the former President of the High Court, The Hon. Mr Justice Finnegan.