Elder Law Prof Blog

Oregon AG 6th Annual Elder Abuse Conference Announced

The 6th Annual Oregon AG Elder Abuse conference will be held October 20-21, 2022 in Bend, OR. Conference organizers are seeking proposals. Here is the info

Request for Presentations is NOW OPEN! Presenters at Attorney General Rosenblum’s Annual Elder Abuse Conference are the heart and the soul of this annual event. Each year over 20 professionals with expertise related to elder abuse are selected to present to nearly 200 attendees. If you would like to be a presenter at the 2022 conference, please complete the Request for Presentations by July 1, 2022 and submit it electronically to [email protected].

If you want to submit a proposal, remember the deadline is tomorrow!

National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life Webinar Series

It's been a few weeks since I blogged. There is just so much "bad" news these days, that I wanted to blog about more cheerful things.  Upcoming events that expand our knowledge, especialy free ones, seem to be a cheerful subject for today's post, so just as an FYI,  the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (NCALL) is offering a 5 part series for civil attorneys on abuse.

In this five-part webinar series for civil attorneys and legal advocates, attendees will learn about a range of topics related to civil remedies for abuse in later life.

Presented by the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (NCALL) and the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence (ABA CDSV) and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

All webinars will be held from 1-2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. There is no cost to attend.

• ​Monday, July 11: Module 1: Abuse in Later Life Overview – This module explores forms of abuse in later life, common abuser tactics, and dynamics of power and control that exist in many abuse in later life cases.

• Monday, July 25: Module 2: Forming the Relationship with Your Client -This module discusses the importance of using a victim-centered approach to screening for abuse in later life and critical challenges to client communication, including accessibility and cultural barriers. The key concepts of privilege, confidentiality, and mandated reporting are also discussed.

• Monday, August 1: Module 3: Client Goal-setting and Non-litigation Responses – This module discusses the need for civil attorneys to listen to client priorities and goals to achieve desired outcomes. Engaging in multi-disciplinary collaboration and client advocacy are also reviewed.

• Monday, August 8: Module 4: Legal Resolutions and Remedies – This module identifies available civil legal remedies that serve both vulnerable and competent older victims.

• Monday, August 15: Module 5: Bringing the Case – Trial Skills – This module discusses the identification and preservation of evidence and testimony and helps viewers to understand methods to develop an effective elder abuse case theory and prepare witnesses for direct and cross-examination.

Click here to register for any/all of the webinars.

National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life Webinar Series

It's been a few weeks since I blogged. There is just so much "bad" news these days, that I wanted to blog about more cheerful things.  Upcoming events that expand our knowledge, especialy free ones, seem to be a cheerful subject for today's post, so just as an FYI,  the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (NCALL) is offering a 5 part series for civil attorneys on abuse.

In this five-part webinar series for civil attorneys and legal advocates, attendees will learn about a range of topics related to civil remedies for abuse in later life.

Presented by the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (NCALL) and the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence (ABA CDSV) and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

All webinars will be held from 1-2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. There is no cost to attend.

• ​Monday, July 11: Module 1: Abuse in Later Life Overview – This module explores forms of abuse in later life, common abuser tactics, and dynamics of power and control that exist in many abuse in later life cases.

• Monday, July 25: Module 2: Forming the Relationship with Your Client -This module discusses the importance of using a victim-centered approach to screening for abuse in later life and critical challenges to client communication, including accessibility and cultural barriers. The key concepts of privilege, confidentiality, and mandated reporting are also discussed.

• Monday, August 1: Module 3: Client Goal-setting and Non-litigation Responses – This module discusses the need for civil attorneys to listen to client priorities and goals to achieve desired outcomes. Engaging in multi-disciplinary collaboration and client advocacy are also reviewed.

• Monday, August 8: Module 4: Legal Resolutions and Remedies – This module identifies available civil legal remedies that serve both vulnerable and competent older victims.

• Monday, August 15: Module 5: Bringing the Case – Trial Skills – This module discusses the identification and preservation of evidence and testimony and helps viewers to understand methods to develop an effective elder abuse case theory and prepare witnesses for direct and cross-examination.

Click here to register for any/all of the webinars.

Billing Issues with Some Medicare Advantage Plans?

The Washington Post ran an article recently,  Beat cancer? Your Medicare Advantage plan might still be billing for it.

According to the article, the U.S. filed a false claims lawsuit in California against a health system, which is just one of others filed by the Government "on abusive billing practices in Medicare Advantage ...  [by] pursuing civil lawsuits against multiple companies that participate in the privatized system, from huge insurers to prestigious nonprofit hospital systems, alleging they have cheated the system for unfair profit."  The article notes that the industry's position is that the "firms adhere to Medicare’s rules and follow the system’s guidance on regulations that are not always clear. Moreover, the industry says that listing all health issues on medical records is a crucial part of Medicare Advantage’s promise to anticipate health problems, proactively manage disease and reduce hospitalizations."  Read the full article to learn more.

New Article on Reverse Mortgages

CNBC ran an article last month  Here’s what you need to know about reverse mortgages. Here's what the article points out

With the stock market getting volatile but the housing market still hot, reverse mortgages have become a more attractive tool for older Americans who need cash for retirement but want to stay in their homes.

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan volume was up 26% in March, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported by service provider Reverse Market Insight. It dropped 3.8% in April but remained well above 6,000 loans for the month — above the average in the last few years.

As the article notes, a significant number of elders have home equity, "about 66% of the average retired American’s wealth," although costs are higher as a result of  a 2017 HUD rule change. The article lists and discusses the pros and cons of reverse mortgages. 

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2022

Tomorrow is the day-World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2022. Lots of activities are happening in observation of the day.  Here are just a couple.  Register for the 8th Global Summit here. Or check out the Connecticut program, "On World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, June 15, Danbury Age Well Community Council presents a panel of experts to identify, prevent, and address financial exploitation of older adults in our community." To register for this Connecticut zoom program, click here. (Thanks to Judge Yamin (one of the speakers) for alerting me to the Connecticut program).  What are you doing to observe the day?

Advice for Caregivers

The New York Times recently published a guide for caregivers, How to Be a Caregiver.

The article contains 6 tips from caregivers: "1. Let the patient lead... 2. Focus on comfort...3. Listen to the experts. ..4. Talk to other caregivers...5. Take care of yourself...6. Shed the guilt."  Don't think you will find yourself caregiving? Consider this information from the article: "21.3 percent of U.S. adults are caregivers, according to Caregiving in the U.S. 2020, a report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. The report defines a caregiver as someone who has provided care to an adult or a child with special needs at some time in the past 12 months. The number of caregivers is growing, and now totals about 53 million adults, up 20 percent from 43.5 million caregivers in 2015."

The article provides these facts

• Most caregivers (about 90 percent) take care of a relative, usually a parent or spouse, while 10 percent care for a friend or neighbor.
• Women are more likely to be caregivers than men, and make up about 60 percent of unpaid caregivers.
• While most caregivers of adults take care of just one person, nearly one in four (24 percent) takes care of two or more people, up from 18 percent in 2015.
• More young people are taking on caregiving roles. About a third of caregivers are 39 or younger, and 6 percent of them are from Generation Z — age 23 or younger.
• Caregiving is time consuming. On average, today's caregivers provide about 24 hours of care each week. And most of them (61 percent) have another job.
• Caregiving takes a toll on health. More Americans (23 percent) say caregiving has made their own health worse, up from 17 percent in 2015.

The article includes suggestions on how to prepare, what you need to organize, and where to find help. Bookmark the article!

Two Hundred Years of Guns.... What if you knew the outcome when you were writing the Second Amendment?

Alexander Merezhko, a good friend since he was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Dickinson Law from his home country of Ukraine, is now a member of Ukraine's parliament and a senior legal advisor to President Zelenskyy.  We email regularly about events in our respective countries; of course, there is a lot for us to discuss.  Recently, Alexander mentioned that discussions were underway about legalizing individual gun ownership in his country.  Suffice it to say, Professor Merezhko is worried about what happens after the war.  It seems likely the assault by Russian forces motivates those debates in Ukraine, but what about the future?  A similar struggle, America's own then-recent war for independence, was part of the context for the language of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, beginning with the words, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...."  

Could America's Founding Fathers have dreamed that the contextual phrase would be dismissed as significant and the remaining words of the Second Amendment would be treated as a mandate that permits unrestricted sales of weapons to individuals who are not part of any well-regulated system?  There is a very interesting article with historical  details I've never considered in The New Yorker, titled How Did Guns Get So Powerful?From the article by Phil Klay:

We wonder how we got here. How did guns grow so powerful—both technically and culturally? Like automobiles, firearms have grown increasingly advanced while becoming more than machines; they are both devices and symbols, possessing a cultural magnetism that makes them, for many people, the cornerstone of a way of life. They’re tools that kill efficiently while also promising power, respect, and equality—liberation from tyranny, from crime, from weakness. They’re a heritage from an imagined past, and a fantasy about protecting our future. It’s taken nearly two hundred years for guns to become the problem they are today. The story of how they acquired their power explains why, now, they are so hard to stop.

Why am I writing about guns (again) in the Elder Law Prof Blog?  The need for better support for mental health for youth and elders is part of what needs to be addressed.  Sadly, guns are part of a larger story not just for 18 year-olds in New York or Texas, but also for older Americans, as "firearm suicides are one of the leading causes of death for older Americans."  See Firearm Suicides in the Elderly: A Narrative Review and Call for Action, published in 2021 in the Journal of Community Health.  

Webinar on Person-Centered Decision-making as Alternative to Guardianship

Here's one more webinar to close out this week.  Pathways to Person-Centered Decision-Making and Alternatives to Guardianship is scheduled for June 21 at 3 eastern. Here is the description:

Person-centered practice is grounded in the idea that people with disabilities are the decision makers in their own lives. Supporting people to make choices is a priority for person-centered systems. Too often people with disabilities are appointed guardians. When people have guardians, their ability to make choices may be significantly constrained in the name of keeping them safe.

This webinar will explore how disability systems are expanding alternatives to guardianship, such as supported decision-making where people choose supporters to help them make important decisions in their lives. Current efforts across the country and internationally to implement supported decision-making and other alternatives provide an historic opportunity to help people take control of their lives. In this webinar, national experts, state representatives, advocates, and people with lived experience of disability from Colorado, Georgia, and Wisconsin, will outline strategies for systems and a new NCAPPS resource to expand supported decision making so that more people can benefit from these alternatives to guardianship.

To register, click here.

 

FDIC & CFPB Upcoming Webinar

Mark your calendars for a June 15  3 p.m. eastern webinar from the FDIC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for a webinar on  learning about ways to fight elder financial exploitation by using "Money Smart for Older Adults." Click here to register. If you aren't familiar with the FDIC's Money Smart program, click here to learn more.

 

 

FBI & Others Offer Elder Justice Initiative Webinars

With World Elder Abuse Awareness Day fast approaching, I'm getting several emails about various educational opportunities during the month of June. Several agencies have partnered to offer a health care fraud webinar series.  The upcoming webinars include Elder Justice: A Case Study of Abuse/Neglect  on June 15, Elder Justice: A Case Study in Health Care Fraud on June 22, and Elder Justice: A Q&A about health care fraud, abuse, and neglect on June 29.  The webinars are all free and open to everyone.

Call for Papers: Journal of Elder Policy Issue on Technology as an Underutilized Late-Life Resource

Distinguished Professor and Editor-in-Chief Eva Kahana at Case Western University has advised us of the the most recent "call for papers" for her Journal of Elder Policy.  As most of us who work in law and aging recognize, our field is inherently cross-disciplinary and that is why it is so nice to hear from the sociology field when it is seeking new articles.  The focus for the upcoming issue is Technology: An Underutilized Late-Life Resource.  

The journal, which is peer reviewed, is seeking papers that address policy challenges and implications related to technology use and older adults. They welcome both empirical and conceptual papers from diverse disciplines and have a preference for pieces that employ policy approaches. 

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Internet use/access
• Digital exclusion/inclusiveness
• Interventions using digital platforms
• Intergenerational learning
• E-Health Literacy
• Cultural influences on technology use in later life
• Digital monitoring of frail older adults
• Digital data collection
• Scams/Fraud

Now the important part: 

Abstracts due by August 15, 2022 (500 words)
Full papers due by October 31, 2022 (8,000-10,000 words)