Resolving Senior Issues through Mediation

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, Anne Arundel, Harford, Howard, Frederick, and St. Mary’s/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.

by Roslyn Zinner, LCSW-C