Left to right are Guardians of Northeast Iowa accounting manager Sherri Carolan, accounting assistant Shelley Ostern and founder and Director Anna Stamat. (Photo by Zach Jensen)
Nearly 23,000 disabled or otherwise impaired adults are under guardianship and conservatorship in Iowa, but only five organizations are available to help them. Guardians of Northeast Iowa is one of those agencies, and last week, the 501c3 nonprofit moved from Calmar to Suite 5 at 110 Washington St., Decorah, so it can better accomplish its mission of protecting and serving the state’s most vulnerable residents.
“It irritates me to see how unwilling we can be to help people in need.” said GNEIA co-founder, Director, and Nationally-Certified Guardian Anna Stamat. “We can spend billions of dollars on war, but we can’t help our most vulnerable citizens. What about helping our own people? Vulnerable people need our help. We get referrals for people we can’t help, because there’s no funding. It just breaks my heart. As a person of faith, I have been raised to assist others, and I firmly believe that we all need to do so.”
Stamat said she co-founded GNEIA in 2016 in response to the state’s lack of services for people like one of her family members.
“I have a family member who has a disability, and he needed support from a guardian to make sure he was making good, healthy decisions for himself and good financial choices,” she said. “He needed a conservator and a representative payee because he receives Social Security benefits to make sure he buys groceries, pays for rent, etc., instead of other things he doesn’t need.”
GNEIA Accounting Manager Sherri Carolan of Decorah said she does the books not only for the company but also, primarily, for its clientele through payee and conservator services. She said payee services are provided to adults who receive Social Security but aren’t able to pay their own bills due to intellectual, emotional or other impairments. Carolan said that for such clients, Social Security appoints “guardians” to handle their money for them. As payees, GNEIA also manages its clients’ food services like SNAP, and they even complete and return the clients’ Medicare and Medicaid reviews, she said.
In a conservatorship, Carolan said GNEIA not only manages a client’s Social Security income but also handles their assets beyond Social Security. For example, Carolan said, if a client on Social Security Disability Insurance is entering a long-term care facility, and they own a house, if needed, GNEIA will handle selling the home to pay for the client’s stay in the long-term facility.”
“Many people receiving Social Security for age or disabilities aren’t able to manage their money, so they really need someone to help them with that,” Carolan said. “They really aren’t able to live independently without help with that financial component. That’s our goal: Helping these people living their best lives out in the community. We’re filling a need in the community, and the folks that we’re helping are so grateful, and that’s very rewarding.”
Accounting Assistant Shelley Ostern of Mabel assists Carolan with her work, and she said that before she began working for GNEIA, she was “completely naive” to the need for services provided by her new employer.
“The things that come up on a daily basis are still shocking,” said Ostern who began working for GNEIA in May. “I knew about guardianship, but I had no idea what it entails by any means. I’m grateful for what I have, because I don’t have the struggles the average client has, and it’s great to be able to help them. We really do a lot for these folks.”
Stamat, who has a master’s degree in human services, said she acquired her passion for helping others by helping that family member all her life.
“I have always believed that people with disabilities, like him, are treated as second- or even third-class citizens, and I don’t accept that,” she said. “Everyone is equal, and we need to treat everybody the same and give them the same opportunities. Can I protect him from everything? No, but I can make sure that he’s healthy and not homeless. Services like ours are common in larger cities, but we’re one of maybe five guardianship organizations in the entire state of Iowa.”
Since she co-founded GNEIA, Stamat said the organization has quickly and extensively grown. She said GNEIA started with two or three clients and now serves more than 200 in regions surrounding Cedar Rapids, Mason City, Sioux City, Waterloo, Sumner and Decorah; with one case manager in each region — each using their vehicles and homes as their offices.
“I don’t like seeing people who are in need of help but aren’t receiving it,” said Stamat, who worked as the Administrator for the Office of Disability Services at Northeast Iowa Community College’s Calmar campus for 12 years before retiring in 2021. “For example, I serve a couple folks with intellectual disabilities who are living with a family member who is emotionally, psychologically and possibly even physically abusing both of them. As a guardian, it’s my mission to help those people get out of that living situation and into a safe and healthy home environment.”
Stamat said that if an individual is determined by a physician or psychiatrist to somebody who cannot make their own decisions or cannot take care of themselves, they are appointed a guardian through the court system, and such individuals are “very-well assessed” before determining that need.
Many of GNEIA’s clients have intellectual or mental health disabilities and conditions that accompany those diagnoses. The organization also serves clients who are physically ill, the elderly and foster kids who are aging out of the system but still need extra help.
“I love making a difference in other peoples’ lives,” Stamat said. “That’s my cup of tea. Like police officers, we ‘Protect and Serve,’ and that’s why we’re called ‘guardians.’ That’s exactly what we’re doing: Protecting and serving our people, and that’s what I live for.”
For information, visit https://guardiansofneia.org/ or call 563-419-2443.
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