From the Web site announcement:
First National Symposium on Ethical Standards for Elder Mediation
The First National Symposium on Ethical Issues for Elder Mediation will be held April 19-20, 2007 at Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law. The Symposium will feature Harry R. Moody, Nancy Neveloff Dubler and Robert Baruch Bush who will be joined by distinguished panelists from the fields of mediation, elder law, gerontology, bioethics, and geriatric healthcare in an effort to examine the ethical issues that arise during mediation involving older adults.
Elder mediation is a rapidly growing specialty of mediation practice and reflects the confluence of two trends: an increasing elder population and the growing appreciation of the value of mediation. With the development of elder mediation practice has emerged a set of issues particular to the aging population. The First National Symposium on Ethical Standards for Elder Mediation will bring together mediators and interested stakeholders from many disciplines within the aging services network to exchange ideas, share experience and work to define best practices and ethical standards. Products of the Symposium will include recommendations for standards of practice, the identification of topics for further examination and published articles in a scholarly journal.
The Symposium is part of a larger national effort to offer high quality mediation services to older adults, their families and service providers. Private mediators, community mediation centers and statewide projects are developing elder mediation programs that intentionally reach out to older adults and collaborate with the aging services network and the courts. Many programs utilize older adult peer mediators to conduct intake, co-mediate and serve on advisory committees.
Although older adults may become involved in the same sorts of disputes as do adults of any age, there are conflicts which, by their nature, are experienced particularly in the lives of the elderly. These include: disagreements among family members over the appropriate caregiver and level of care for a parent in his or her own home; decisions around nursing home placement; financial and estate planning matters; the need for the appointment of a guardian and the selection of the guardian; and health care and end-of-life decision-making. Even in cases where the subject of a dispute is not specifically age-related, age may play a significant role in how well the older adult’s voice is heard in the conflict.
Read the rest of the announcement about this elder mediation symposium. Or download a symposium brochure.
I have admired Professors Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger ever since I first read their book The Promise of Mediation many years ago. (I see a revised edition was published in 2004.) Are any of you planning to attend this event?
From the brochure:
Who should attend?
The Symposium is intended for those practicing elder mediation or who intend to expand their practice into this arena, judges, elder law attorneys, geriatric ethicists and bioethicists, aging services personnel, social workers and academics from the fields of the mediation, law and gerontology.
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