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Resolving
Senior Issues through Mediation
by Roslyn Zinner, LCSW-C
Mrs.
R, an 85 year old widow, has been taking care of her ailing
husband for several years, but for the past year she has been
complaining about feeling overwhelmed by his needs and his lack of
cooperation. Yet she is also
adamant about staying in the home in which they have lived for many
years. One son wants both to go into an assisted living facility with
different care levels. A son
who lives out of town doesn’t understand why the siblings can’t
simply share the expense of a full-time caregiver in the home.
The oldest daughter is looking to the Department of Aging social
worker to fill in the many needed services.
With many other families in her caseload in which the services
needs were already clear, the social worker turned to a new resource to
help the family formulate a plan: senior mediation.
The mediator, specially trained in family conflict resolution,
aging issues and elder law, brought everyone in the family together to
share their concerns and brainstorm solutions.
After a couple of sessions, the plan formulated was presented to
the referring social worker for help in fine tuning and implementation.
As
this example illustrates, seniors and their families face a minefield of
difficult choices when the functioning of a loved one deteriorates.
Their challenge is to create a plan that minimizes sacrifices of
independence and dignity. Senior
mediation has been developing nationally over the past decade as a tool
for resolving many family issues related to aging, particularly in
guardianship cases and with caregiver disputes.
It may be used to resolve a variety of issues including health
care, nursing homes, employment, estates, and housing. In family cases,
the open discussion with the mediator, who is a neutral facilitator,
offers an opportunity for airing concerns and promoting understanding
and decision-making between family members.
Unlike
family therapy, where the primary aim is to heal past wounds and cure
dysfunction, mediators focus on resolving present conflicts.
Healing may, of course, occur, but the aim is to make helping the
family craft a plan that will sustain the older person at their highest
level of functioning.
In
family and non-family cases, seniors and other involved parties are more
willing to make changes when they have a voice and some control over the
outcome.
In
guardianship cases, the older person faces a potentially huge loss of
autonomy. Courts are
increasingly using mediation to allow the family to work out issues that
might head off a bitter and divisive legal battle.
In
February 2005, the Maryland Department of Aging received a grant from
Maryland Judiciary’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO)
to develop the “Maryland Senior Citizen Mediation Project.” Under
the leadership of Robert J. Rhudy, the purpose of the project is to
develop dispute resolution programs that benefit seniors, to educate the
professionals in the geriatrics field about the appropriate use and
value of these programs, and to create the screening and referral
systems needed to deliver services.
Other involved agencies are Legal Aid and the Maryland
Association of Community Mediation Centers.
The
Project got underway in May 2005 with a planning conference that brought
together 50 stakeholder representatives: social workers from state and
local departments of aging, elder law attorneys, court personnel, and
mediators. In December 2005,
the first training for Guardianship and Caregiver Mediation brought
together a similar mix of 34 professionals, including a dozen social
workers, from across the state of Maryland. Plans are underway for
future training programs in a variety of settings that serve the elderly
One
of the ways the Project will accomplish its goals is to create model
programs in seven counties: Baltimore
City, and Baltimore County,, Anne Arundel, Harford, Howard,
Frederick, St. Mary’s, and Calvert Counties..
In each county, workshops and meetings will bring together
mediators, social workers, and attorneys so that they can establish
collaborative relationships. The
goal is to enhance the valuable work social workers who help seniors
facing difficult life transitions. An
added bonus of these workshops will be the chance for mediators and
social workers to form supportive relationships, each adding skills to
their repertoire from the other’s profession.
In
a related development, The Center for Social Gerontology (TCSG) recently
helped birth a new leadership organization, the a National Elder
Mediation Network. According
to Penny Hommel, their goal is to “enhance communication, give voice
to older persons, and strengthen relationships among elders, their
families and the elder care community, while also promoting autonomy,
independence and quality of life for the nation's elders."
This
exciting endeavor provides a host of new opportunities and resources for
social workers: to learn mediation skills, to interact and collaborate
with mediators, and to provide additional help to clients.
For more information, contact the author, Roslyn Zinner, LCSW-C
by phone at 410-672-2237 or email rozzinner@comcast.net
or program consultant Bob Rhudy, 410-669-7587, or email
at bobrhudy@yahoo.com.
   
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