Mediation of Elder Care
Mediation of elder care is a service dedicated to:
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Empowering an elder person in the process of decision making surrounding their own care and how they can best convey their choices to family members and healthcare providers.
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Family decision regarding care of their elder parent.
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Non-familial appointed healthcare proxy decisions regarding care of someone else’s parent, spouse, or sibling.
Aging and caregiving are often complicated because of healthcare and legal parameters, financial components, personal preferences and beliefs, and conflicting values of family members, and the proceedings associated therewith may involve multiple parties. Therefore, elders, family members, non-familial caretakers, legally-appointed proxies, and powers of attorney often need assistance navigating thorny issues which can present a unique challenge even in the closest and most harmonious of families.
When a parent or elder needs long term care, palliative care, or nears end of life, particularly in cases in which an elder is unable to make crucial decisions for themselves, immediate family members may differ in opinion about a range of emotionally-charged caregiving decisions. Such decisions may involve questions about living situation arrangements and the associated parameters and particulars, questions surrounding driving privileges and means of access to necessary services, who will be named healthcare proxy, etcetera.
Our role is to ask questions of the involved parties, facilitate collaboration, and often mediate a family dialogue, all in an effort to find common ground and agreeable solutions, and ultimately determine what is in the best interests of the family member in need of care. We also assist in establishing clarity as it pertains to the legal rights and interests of involved and concerned parties. Sometimes, the intervention of a mediator can be brief, requiring simply enough time for all parties to come to a consensus on a care plan. We help people think in new ways about how they can avoid or solve conflicts themselves, and help them to strategize on how to more successfully communicate with one another.
Anastasia has ben a civil and criminal litigator for more than 30 years and is trained and experienced in conflict resolution and elder care matters. Her approach is one of transparency as she determines the key issues and brings together the involved parties in an unbiased and impartial manner.
Meetings may be short term and intensive, or continue over time. The ideal solution is to conclude mediation with a written agreement called a “Memo of Understanding” with which involved parties may move forward.