Elder Law Prof Blog

Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging Academic Research Grants Application Now Open

Forwarded from the Director Mary Jane Ciccarello

 

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging

Invites Applications for

 The 2023-2025 Borchard Fellowships in Law & Aging

 

Applications due April 3, 2023

 

 

Fellowship Information

The Borchard Fellowship in Law & Aging offers the opportunity to carry out a substantial project related to law and aging in partnership with a host agency. Two two-year fellowships are available to law school graduates interested in, and perhaps already in the early stages of pursuing, an academic and/or professional career in law and aging.

The fellowship is $58,000 a year for two years and is intended as a full-time position only. During the fellowship period, the Center’s director and former fellows are available to help fellows with the further development of their knowledge, skills, and contacts. Fellows may also receive from the Center financial support to attend appropriate professional education program opportunities. A fellow is expected to provide the Center with monthly activities reports. Fellows may live and work where they choose in the United States. Fellows must be either U.S. citizens or legally resident in the U.S.

A legal services or other non-profit organization involved in law and aging must serve as the fellow’s host agency and supervise a fellow’s activities and projects. The fellow’s host agency is responsible for providing employee benefits, employer’s FICA payment, administrative support, workspace, computer, telephone, and email access.

The two-year fellowship period starts typically on July 1 for those already admitted to the Bar and from not later than September 1 for those who must sit for the Bar exam after law school graduation.

Fellows participate in conference calls and other planned activities with other current and former fellows to encourage networking. Former fellows who successfully complete the fellowship period may also participate in the Center’s Former Fellows Grant Program.

Examples of some activities and projects by Borchard Fellows:

• Working with an established legal services program to enable vulnerable, isolated, low-income seniors to age-in-place by addressing their unmet legal needs;

• Providing holistic services to older clients facing consumer debt and foreclosure-related concerns;

• Providing direct legal representation and holistic services to older tenants in “clutter cases”;

• Implementation of a courthouse project to help elderly pro se tenants achieve long-term housing stabilization through the interdisciplinary use of legal representation and social services, allowing more elderly tenants to “age in place” at home; 

• Development of mobile clinics to help Chinese-speaking elders improve their access to public benefits and health care;

• Development of a medical-legal partnership for low-income older adults;

• Development of educational outreach efforts and legal services for older LGBTQ+ adults;

• Development of legal services and informational materials to caregivers working on behalf of beneficiaries with cognitive impairment;

• Development of a non-profit senior law resource center providing direct legal services and public education;

• Development of an interdisciplinary elder law clinical program at a major public university law school;

• Development of a mediation component for a legal services program elder law hotline;

• Development of an interdisciplinary project for graduate students in law, medicine, and health advocacy to foster understanding and collaboration between professions;

• Development of training materials and statewide trainings for

lawyers, judges and other court personnel, and social service providers on new comprehensive state guardianship laws;

• Development of legal services programs for older clients in consumer law and small claims matters, end-of-life matters, and in protection from financial and elder abuse for older clients whose first language is other than English;

• Development of free legal clinics for older clients in suburban areas;

• Development, administration, and interpretation of statewide senior legal hotline outcomes study;

• Increasing access to legal representation for older adults in immigration detention facilities;

• Organizing and/or attending national conferences on law and aging issues;
• Writing and publication of law review articles on law and aging issues;

• Writing and publication of state specific, consumer oriented handbooks on legal issues affecting older persons;

• Analysis of Medicare policies;

• Analysis of Medicaid Home and Community Based Services with a focus on improving racial equity;

• Analysis of SSI non-disability appeals; and

• Teaching elder law and related courses at law schools where fellows reside.

 

Application Process

Applications are due on April 3, 2023. Applicants must submit a completed online application including an information form, an explanation of the applicant’s planned activities and projects, a statement about the applicant’s interest in law and aging, a current curriculum vitae, a law school transcript, a letter of support from the proposed supervisor, and two other letters of support.

All fellowship application information and the required online application are available between March 1, 2023, and April 3, 2023, at http://www.borchardcla.org/fellowship-program.

For further information, contact Mary Jane Ciccarello, Director, at [email protected].

Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging Academic Research Grants Application Now Open

From the Boarchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging:

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging

Requests Proposals for 2023 Academic Research Grants

Legal, health sciences, social sciences, and gerontology scholars and professionals are invited to submit research proposals to The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging. The objective of the Academic Research Grants Program is to further research and scholarship about new or improved public policies, laws, and/or programs that will enhance the quality of life for older adults, including those who are poor or otherwise isolated by language, culture, disability, lack of education, or other barriers.

Up to four grants of a maximum of $20,000 each will be awarded. The Center expects grantees to meet the objectives of the grant program through individual or collaborative research projects that analyze and recommend changes in one or more important existing public policies, laws, and/or programs relating to older adults; or, anticipate the need for and recommend new public policies, laws, and/or programs necessitated by changes in the number and demographics of the country’s and the world’s elder populations, by advances in science and technology, by changes in the health care system, or by other developments. It is expected that the research product will be publishable in a first-rate academic journal.

Further information about the research grant program and the application process is available on the Center’s website at www.borchardcla.org. The on-line application is available on the Center’s website as of September 15, 2022. Applications should be submitted no later than October 17, 2022. Selections will be made on or about December 15, 2022. Funded projects must begin no later than June 1, 2023 and be completed within 12 months.

For more information, contact Mary Jane Ciccarello, Director, Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging, [email protected].

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)

RFP: Washington State Seeks Expert Consultation to Develop CCRC Regulations with Heightened Consumer Protections

I'm always interested when I start getting lots of calls or emails about a certain topic in aging.  Today I was hearing from a lot of people wanting to talk about Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs, sometimes also called Life Plan Communities or LPCs). It is safe to say that all forms of senior living operations are facing new challenges after being hit hard by the lockdowns and staffing problems of the last two years with COVID-19.

But one of the most interesting set of calls was from the State of Washington, where residents have been using their time together during COVID to think carefully about the need for certain key protections for consumers who put their money and trust into CCRCs.  The Washington Continuing Care Residents Association (WACCRA) has worked carefully, calmly and diligently to reach the ears of legislators and regulators in the state.  I had the pleasure of hearing from  members and residents of CCRCs in Washington last October and speaking at their annual meeting. 

Today, I heard that the  Office of Insurance Commissioner in Washington has initiated a Request for Proposals for a time-sensitive research project:

This project is designed to assess federal and state authorities regulating continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) and provide a report with recommendations on creating a legal framework for shared regulatory oversight of CCRC products under Chapter 18.390 RCW, which may achieve heightened consumer protections.

Interested researchers -- with background in regulatory systems for CCRCS -- should act quickly as the deadline for submissions is May 23, 2022.   

Click HERE FOR THE FULL DETAILS!  

SNF Chain Exec. Gets Big Bonus

Sen. Warren calls Genesis Healthcare executive bonus act of ‘unfathomable greed’ according to the recent article published in the Washington Post.

A nursing home chain that gave its former CEO a $5.2 million “retention payment” at the height of the pandemic has received a sharp rebuke from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who sits on the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging.

Warren called the payout by Genesis Healthcare to George Hager Jr. — at a time when the death toll among residents was approaching 2,800 and the company was relying on federal emergency aid to survive financially — “inexplicable and unseemly” in a letter dated Jan. 27. She asked the company board to explain its decision and to provide the minutes of all meetings in 2020 where compensation was discussed. And she warned the company not to seek additional emergency relief from Washington.

Senator Warren's letter is available here. Stay tuned-more will come.

Briefing Paper Advancing Guardianship Reform and Promoting Less Restrictive Options

The ABA Commission on Law & Aging released recently this paper, WINGS Briefing Paper
Advancing Guardianship Reform and Promoting Less Restrictive . Here are some highlights from the report.

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) awarded a grant to the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging (ABA Commission) to establish, expand or enhance state Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS)…

This briefing paper discusses the ABA Commission’s WINGS Project, its results, and its potential for positive changes. Specifically, it (1) describes the challenges of adult guardianship reform and the rationale for creating WINGS; (2) presents project findings and conclusions about WINGS; (3) discusses the potential for applying the CIP model to the adult guardianship system; and (4) makes recommendations for next steps in federal policy.

The ACL funding was awarded with the goal of testing whether WINGS is an approach that can advance guardianship reform to:

(a) avoid unnecessary and overbroad guardianship when less restrictive options are available, promoting self-determination; and

 (b) prevent, detect and address abuses in the guardianship system.

* * *

While the project WINGS, and indeed all state WINGS, have advanced adult guardianship reform, their modestly funded efforts are not enough to significantly improve outcomes for adults subject to, or potentially subject to, guardianship… Programs like WINGS should exist in every state under a national infrastructure with consistent, ongoing technical assistance and support… [T]he Commission on Law and Aging offers the following … Recommendations:

1. Recommendations for Federal Policy

ACL, in coordination with other federal entities, should provide funding to support the following recommendations:

1. Support WINGS Through Systems Change Grants

• Administer a five-year WINGS systems change grant initiative.
• Include programmatic requirements for monitoring guardians.
• Create a WINGS capacity-building/technical assistance entity.
• Support local or regional WINGS.

1. Take Steps Toward Establishment of a Guardianship Court Improvement Program

• Plan for establishment and implementation of a Guardianship Court Improvement Program. Pilot the program and support a capacity-building center.

• • Secure federal legislation with appropriations to implement and sustain a Guardianship Court Improvement Program.

The full report is available here.

AALS Call for Papers/Presenters on Intersectionality, Aging and the Law

The AALS Section on Law and Aging is joining forces with the Sections on Civil Rights, Disability Law, Family and Juvenile Law, Minority Groups. Poverty, Sexual Orientation, Gender-Identity Issues, Trusts & Estates and Women in Legal Education to host a program for the 2021 Annual Meeting, scheduled to take place in San Francisco in January.  The theme for the program is appropriately broad -- "Intersectionality, Aging and the Law."  

I like this definition of "intersectionality": 

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.  Example:  "Through an awareness of intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among us."

We need great presenters!  

From Naomi Cahn at George Washington Law:

We are interested in participants who will address this subject from numerous perspectives. Potential topics include gray divorce, incarceration, elder abuse (physical or financial), disparities in wealth, health, housing, and planning based on race or gender or gender identity, age and disability discrimination, and other topics.  The conception of the program is broad, and we are exploring publication options.

If you are interested in participating, please send a 400-600 word description of what you'd like to discuss.  Submissions should be sent to Professor Naomi Cahn, [email protected], by June 2, 2020, and the author[s] of the selected paper(s) will be notified by July 1, 2020.  

AALS is planning on hosting the annual meeting from January 5-9 and I personally feel the overall theme for the conference is apt in these fraught times:  The Power of Words

 

Journal of Elder Policy Calls for Papers related to COVID-19, Policy and Older Adults

Our friend Professor Naomi Cahn at George Washington Law has advised us that the peer-reviewed Journal of Elder Policy is planning a special issue related to COVID-19.  Certainly the implications of policy in this pandemic are constantly in the news, and how appropriate to begin the process of analysis. 

Abstracts of 500 words are due by June 15, 2020.  Full papers of between 8,000 and 10,000 words are due by September 30, 2020.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Risk assessment, Ageism, Legislation to protect older adults,
• Community initiatives, Medical and nursing perspectives,
• Mental health challenges for elders, Family support or conflict,
• Helping and volunteering, Rationing of care, Challenges for caregivers

Authors should send their Vita and a 500 word abstract related to their paper by June 15 to Managing Assistant Editor, Kaitlyn Langendoerfer.  Details available here. 

The ever-busy Naomi is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal.  Thank you for letting us know about this opportunity, Naomi!

The Challenges for the Newest Sandwich Generation

The interesting thing about the sandwich generation is that your position changes over time. Boomers at one time were  the "filling" and now are one of the slices of the bread. What about the family caregivers for the boomers? They're now the filling. And they face their challenges.  This Washington Post article, published before the sweep of the Corona virus changed the conversation, predicts greater challenges for them. The ‘sandwich generation’ quandary was hard on baby boomers. It’s going to be harder on their kids acknowledges how individuals age into their placement within the sandwich generation:

 

The boundaries of this cohort are blurry and perpetually shifting; when the term was first coined by social worker Dorothy Miller in 1981, she referred specifically to 30- or 40-something women — baby boomers or members of the Silent Generation — who were caregivers for both children and aging parents. Now, 40- and 50-something Gen Xers make up the heart of the sandwich generation (which includes men and women), but the baton will pass again soon: The oldest millennials turn 40 next year, notes Kim Parker, director of social trends research with the Pew Research Center. 

And because millennials have waited longer to have children than prior generations, they are even more likely than their predecessors to find themselves balancing care for even younger children and aging parents....

Since some X'ers waited to have kids, their situation gives the Millennials a preview of sorts and discusses the "sandwich pressures" which occur to the caregivers.  We have always had this multi-generational caregiving relationship, but now it seems to be taking on a different emphasis:

There has always been the cycle of growing children and aging grandparents, and the stresses that can result from caring for either or both. But as more parents trend toward starting their families later, the widening distance between the generations — child, parent, grandparent — is changing the nature of the dynamic among all three.

The recommendations for the caregivers strike a similar tone for those given to those of us self-isolating, including making time for yourself, connecting with your friends, communicating with your family and remembering that "showing up for the people you love is always the right thing to do."

Funding Opportunity for Recent Law Grad

The Borchard Center has announced the opening of its grants period for recent (or soon to be) law grads who seek a fellowship in law and aging.Here's the announcement

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging Invites Applications for  the 2020-2021 Borchard Fellowships in Law & Aging. Applications due April 1, 2020

 Fellowship Information

The Borchard Fellowship in Law & Aging offers the opportunity to carry out a substantial project related to law and aging in partnership with a host agency. Up to three fellowships are available to law school graduates interested in, and perhaps already in the early stages of pursuing, an academic and/or professional career in law and aging.

During the fellowship period, the Center’s director and former fellows are available to help fellows with the further development of their knowledge, skills, and contacts. A legal services or other non-profit organization involved in law and aging must supervise a fellow’s activities and projects. In addition to the fellow's planned activities and project (unless the fellow's project includes the provision of legal services), the fellow is encouraged to provide some pro bono direct legal services to older adults under appropriate supervision. A fellow is expected to provide the Center with monthly activities reports.

The fellowship is $54,000 and is intended as a full-time position only. The fellow’s sponsoring agency is responsible for providing employee benefits, employer’s FICA payment, administrative support, workspace, computer, telephone, and email access, and appropriate professional education program opportunities. Fellows may live and work where they choose in the United States. Fellows must be either U.S. citizens or legally resident in the U.S.

The twelve month fellowship period runs from July 1 to June 30 for those already admitted to the Bar and from not later than September 1 to August 31 for those who must sit for the Bar exam after law school graduation.

Fellows participate in conference calls and other planned activities with other current and former fellows to encourage networking. Former fellows who successfully complete the fellowship period may also participate in the Center’s Former Fellows Grant Program.

Examples of some activities and projects by Borchard Fellows:

• Working with an established legal services program to enable vulnerable, isolated, low-income seniors to age-in-place by addressing their unmet legal needs;

• Providing holistic services to older clients facing consumer debt and foreclosure-related concerns;

• Implementation of a courthouse project to help elderly pro se tenants achieve long-term housing stabilization through the interdisciplinary use of legal representation and social services, allowing more elderly tenants to “age in place” at home; 

• Development of mobile clinics to help Chinese-speaking elders improve their access to public benefits and health care;

• Development of a medical-legal partnership for low-income seniors;

• Development of legal services and informational materials to caregivers working on behalf of beneficiaries with cognitive impairment;

• Development of a non-profit senior law resource center providing direct legal services and public education;

• Development of an interdisciplinary elder law clinical program at a major public university law school;

• Development of a mediation component for a legal services program elder law hotline;

• Development of an interdisciplinary project for graduate students in law, medicine, and health advocacy to foster understanding and collaboration between professions;

• Development of training materials and statewide trainings for lawyers, judges and other court personnel, and social service providers on new comprehensive state guardianship laws;

• Development of legal services programs for older clients in consumer law and small claims matters, end-of-life matters, and in protection from financial and elder abuse for older clients whose first language is other than English;

• Development of free legal clinics for older clients in suburban areas;

• Development, administration, and interpretation of statewide senior legal hotline outcomes study;

• Organizing and/or attending national conferences on law and aging issues;

• Writing and publication of law review articles on law and aging issues;

• Writing and publication of state specific, consumer oriented handbooks on legal issues affecting older persons;

• Analysis of Medicare policies;

• Analysis of SSI non-disability appeals; and

• Teaching elder law and related courses at law schools where fellows reside.

 Application Process

Applications are due on April 1, 2020. Applicants must submit a completed online application including an information form, an explanation of the applicant’s planned activities and projects, a current curriculum vitae, a law school transcript, a letter of support from the proposed supervisor, and two other letters of support. All fellowship application information and the required online application are available between March 1, 2020, and April 1, 2020, at http://www.borchardcla.org/fellowship-program.

For further information, contact Mary Jane Ciccarello, Director, at [email protected].

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging RFP for 2020 Academic Research Grants

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging has released its RFP for 2020 Academic Research Grants.  Here are some details:

Legal, health sciences, social sciences, and gerontology scholars and professionals are invited to submit research proposals to The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging. The objective of the Academic Research Grants is to further research and scholarship about new or improved public policies, laws, and/or programs that will enhance the quality of life for older adults, including those who are poor or otherwise isolated by language, culture, disability, lack of education, or other barriers.

Up to four grants of a maximum of $20,000 each will be awarded. The Center expects grantees to meet the objectives of the grant program through individual or collaborative research projects that either:

• analyze and recommend changes to one or more important existing public policies, laws, and/or programs relating to older adults, or
• anticipate the need for and recommend new public policies, laws, and/or programs necessitated by changes in the number and demographics of the country’s and the world’s elder populations, by advances in science and technology, by changes in the health care system, or by other developments.

It is expected that the research product will be publishable in a first-rate academic journal. Applicants are encouraged to disseminate research findings through additional channels such as conferences, stakeholder meetings, and white papers.

Larger budgets using outside matching funds are encouraged but not required. Favorable weight is given to proposals that indicate, where appropriate, that active attempts will be made to solicit required additional funds for the project (including a list of sources to be approached). Grant funds must be used for the approved budget purposes, which may include reasonable compensation for investigator(s), consultant(s), and research assistant(s), print and computer-based research materials, and other necessary expenses. Faculty salary support will not be approved other than for (1) summer when the applicant is not eligible for summer support from their university or (2) buying out a course. Grant funds may not be used for thesis or dissertation research, student tuition or fees, or university overhead or administrative charges.

Proposals must be submitted by one or more individual researchers who will be responsible for carrying out the project. Collaborating researchers may be affiliated with the same or different institutions. Grant funds must be administered by an academic, government, or other non-profit organization. Evidence of federal tax-exempt status is required before funds will be released.

The on-line application form on the Center’s website, www.borchardcla.org, will be available after September 15, 2019. Applications should be submitted no later than October 15, 2019. Selections will be made on or about December 15, 2019.

Proposals should include a narrative description of the research project (5 pages maximum), including proposed research activities, how the research meets the objective of the Center’s grant program, why the project is otherwise important, a description of the intended written research product(s), the journal(s) to which the work product(s) will be submitted for publication, and a statement regarding IRB approval. Required attachments are a project timeline, detailed budget (including matching support, if any), curriculum vitae of the investigator(s), and federal tax exemption letter evidencing the administrating organization is a 501(c)(3) organization not classified as a private foundation.

Within three months of project completion, grantees must submit by email a final written report that includes a description and chronology of the research and results and an accounting of grant funds. In addition, a short progress and status report must be submitted eight months following project commencement. Upon publication of any research products, either print or electronic copies should be submitted to the Foundation.

For further description of the Academic Research Grant Program, the Request for Proposals, and the application form, please see the Center’s Web site at www.borchardcla.org. For more information, contact Catheryn Koss, [email protected].

The online application is available here.

President Signs BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act -- $100M Funding

On December 31, 2018, the President signed S. 2076.  The bill, with the somewhat unwieldy title of "Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act" or "BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act," was approved in the Senate by a voice vote on December 12  and by the House on a vote of 361 to 3.  The law amends portions of the Public Health Code (at 42 U.S.C. Section 280c) to increase funding and restate priorities related to Alzheimer's and related dementias.  The funding authorized in the last provision of the law if for "$20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024."  As one of my colleagues, administrative law guru Professor Matthew Lawrence reminds me, implementation of the new law will also likely require Congressional approval with an appropriations bill (or bills).  

The scope of this bill is, shall we say, broad.  It is not necessarily about funding research into causes or cures for dementias.  New language in the bill directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants, contracts or cooperative agreements with eligible entities (which includes "institutions of higher education") for the establishment or support of regional centers to "address" Alzheimer's and related dementias by:

    (A) advancing awareness of public health officials, health care professionals and the public on current information and research related to dementias,

    (B) identifying and translating promising research finding into evidence-based programmatic interventions for both those with dementia and their caregivers,

    (C) expanding activities related to Alzheimer's disease, related dementias and associated health disparities.

Other portions of the legislation seek to improve state and federal reporting and analysis of data on the incidence and prevalence of dementias; in addition, a section of the bill is directed to programming by state public health officials or agencies, with a 30% state matching fund requirement (unless the matching would cause "serious hardship").  

Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) were two of the primary sponsors of the legislation, which reportedly received support from "183 organizations and individuals, including the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Impact Movement and Maria Shriver, founder of The Women's Alzheimer's Movement."

 

Call for Papers: Elder Law Review E-Journal Solicits for Special Issue on Relational Autonomy

The Elder Law Review is an independent refereed e-journal produced by  Western Sydney University.   The Review is multi-disciplinary, bringing together professionals working, researching and writing in the aged care area. It is designed to be of interest to academics, practitioners and those involved in the provision of aged care.

We received word via Nina Kohn at Syracuse Law and Guest Editor Margaret Hall of Thompson Rivers University in Canada about plans for a special volume of the Elder Law Review on the theme of  "Relational Autonomy, Vulnerability Theory, Older Adults and the Law: Making It Real."  Publication is planned for mid 2019.  

The topic was developed at a March 2018 workshop held at Macquarie University in Australia.  

Original, unpublished contributions are invited for any of the following sections of the Review:

• the Refereed section containing scholarly articles exploring different aspects of relational autonomy and vulnerability theory in relation to older adults and the law. While we will consider articles of any length, we prefer them to be between 3000 and 8000 words.
• the Comments section, which consists of contributions from government, lawyers and aged care representatives, commenting on issues which the contributor perceives to be of contemporary significance within elder law.
• News and Current Issues – including legislative changes and case notes.
• Elder Law in Practice which profiles legal practices, community projects, social justice initiatives and pro-bono schemes from all over the world that specifically target the legal needs of older people.

Submissions are due by March 1, 2019.  For more information, see Call for Submissions, here.  

Looking for a Grant to Support Law and Aging Research? Borchard Foundation Timeline

Research Programs Coordinator Catheryn Koss at the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging sent information about research grants available from her foundation:  

Legal, health sciences, social sciences, and gerontology scholars and professionals are invited to submit research proposals to The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging. The objectives of the Academic Research Grants Program are to further research and scholarship about new or improved public policies, laws, and/or programs that will enhance the quality of life for the elderly, including those who are poor or otherwise isolated by lack of education, language, culture, disability, or other barriers.

 

Up to four grants of a maximum of $20,000 each will be awarded. The Center expects grantees to meet the objectives of the grant program through individual or collaborative research projects that analyze and recommend changes in one or more important existing public policies, laws, and/or programs relating to the elderly; or, anticipate the need for and recommend new public policies, laws, and/or programs for the elderly necessitated by changes in the number and demographics of the country’s and the world’s elderly populations, by advances in science and technology, by changes in the health care system, or by other developments. It is expected that the research product will be publishable in a first-rate journal.

 

A detailed Request For Proposals is attached to this email and can be accessed on the Center’s website, www.borchardcla.org. The on-line application form will be available after September 15, 2018. Applications should be submitted no later than October 15, 2018. Selections will be made on or about December 15, 2018. For more information, contact Catheryn Koss, [email protected].

New York Summer Internship Opportunity for Law Students Interested in Protection of Older Adults

Our friends at the Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention sent application information for law students interested in a summer 2016 internship in New York:

The David Berg Center for Law and Aging is seeking select students for its Summer 2016 internship programs. The Center focuses on a wide range of legal and policy issues affecting the older adult population and victims of elder abuse and exploitation. 

 

Interns will be offered the unique opportunity to work at the nation’s first elder abuse shelter, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.  Located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York, on 17 acres of the Hudson River, the comprehensive elder abuse center provides an emergency residential shelter as well as psychosocial, health care and legal advocacy and community-based services for victims of elder abuse. 

 

Under the direct supervision of the Weinberg Center’s Assistant Director and General Counsel, students will potentially be exposed to legal practice in all five boroughs of New York City and Westchester County. Students may have the opportunity to work collaboratively with Weinberg Center partners such as the New York Attorney General’s Office, the New York City Police Department, District Attorneys’ Offices and Family Justice Centers. Interns will complete substantive research and writing on the different legal and policy issues impacting the older adult population and victims of elder abuse. 

 

Past issues have included HIPAA regulations, questions surrounding legal capacity, immigration, powers of attorney, Medicaid eligibility, copyright, and right to privacy.  The interns will gain case management skills and potential courtroom exposure through drafting petitions for guardianship, family court orders of protection and housing court matters.  The interns will also have the opportunity to participate in multidisciplinary conferences, meetings of the American Bar Association Senior Lawyer’s Division’s Elder Abuse Task Force and other community outreach and training events. To apply, please send a resume, cover letter and writing sample to [email protected].

April 15, 2016 is Deadline for Borchard Center Fellowship Applications

The Borchard Foundation's Center on Law & Aging offers up to three fellowships  each year for new or recent law school graduates, to provide financial assistance and support for development of knowledge, skills and contacts connected to law and aging.

The annual awards are $45,000 in amount.  The deadline for the next application cycle is April 15, 2016. 

For more information, contact Mary Jane Ciccarello, co-director at the Borchard Center.  More information on the fellowship program is available here.

Elder Justice Americorps

DOJ's Elder Justice Initiative & Office for Victims of Crimes, along with the Corporation for National and Community Service announced the creation of the Elder Justice Americorps.  According to the website

[E]lder Justice AmeriCorps, a new grant program to provide legal assistance and support services to victims of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation and to promote pro bono capacity building in the field.  This effort will expand a partnership between the two agencies, which includes justice AmeriCorps, a legal aid program launched in 2014 by the Department of Justice and CNCS to serve vulnerable populations.

...

The Elder Justice AmeriCorps program, which is intended to complement existing Office for Victims of Crime grants to support the development of legal assistance networks providing comprehensive, pro bono legal services for victims of crime, will consist of a single grant to an intermediary organization that will support approximately 60 full-time AmeriCorps positions for each year of the two-year program.  Interested applicants can review the Notice of Funding Opportunity at http://www.nationalservice.gov/build-your-capacity/grants/funding-opportunities/2016/americorps-state-and-national-grants-fy-2016#FGSAAA.

Student Writing Competition on Disability Law: Entries Due by January 15, 2016

Thomas Jefferson School of Law is hosting its second annual student writing competition focusing on disability law.  The Crane Writing Competition, named in honor of a Thomas Jefferson alum, Jameson Crane III, seeks to encourage student scholarship at the intersection of law and medicine, or law and social services.  A central purpose is to further development of legal rights and protections, and improve the lives of those with disabilities.

Who can enter?  The competition is open to currently enrolled law students, medical students and doctoral candidates in related fields, who attend an accredited graduate program of study in the U.S. 

Deadline for entries?  January 15, 2016 (by midnight, Pacific Standard Time) via electronic submission.  For details see the competition website at Thomas Jefferson School of Law: http://www.tjsl.edu/cranewritingcompetition

What will be your topic? The competition accepts papers on a wide range of topics related to disability law, including legal issues arising from employment, government services and programs, public accommodations, education, higher education, housing and health care.  This should integrate well with students currently taking or who have recently completed a seminar course, thus allowing that all important "double value" for good papers.

Prizes include cash ($1,500 to first place; $1,000 for each of two second place winners), plus potential publication.

My thanks to Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp for sharing news of this year's competition.  She is coordinating the competition and you can send questions directly to Susan. 

University Battle Over Alzheimer's Research Dollars Not Resolved by Court Decision

While visiting in California this summer, I began following the dispute between University of California San Diego (UCSD), a public university, and University of Southern California (USC), a private university, over control of Alzheimer's research, originally known as the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study.  At first the outcome seemed predicted by judicial rulings favoring UCSD in a suit filed in San Diego courts. The most recent news coverage, however, suggests that what began with USC hiring away UCSD's top researcher, has continued with USC successfully luring away major funding. As reported in a San Diego Union-Tribune article:

While the La Jolla-based campus has so far won in court — with a Superior Court judge giving it continued control of the Alzheimer’s initiative — it is losing most of the contracts, money and trust of that program’s participants across the country.

 

USC said it has obtained eight of the project’s 10 main contracts after convincing sponsors that it is better suited to manage their clinical trials of experimental drugs and therapies for the neurological disorder. Those sponsors are defecting from the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, or ADCS, and shifting to an institute that USC recently opened in San Diego....

 

UC San Diego confirmed the major setback, but said USC may be overstating matters by claiming that the contract transfers are worth up to $93.5 million. UC San Diego is still totaling its financial losses. Officials at the La Jolla school concede that they failed to tightly manage the Alzheimer’s program and allowed it to drift away from campus life. UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla did not respond to requests for comment on the largest loss of research funding in the university’s history.

 

But campus officials said they are confident about rebuilding the Alzheimer’s program.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly was reported to be moving "millions" of dollars of research to USC control earlier this summer.

The USC Provost, while sounding very "corporate" in talking about USC's plans, is quoted as offering some consolation, with the possibility of working with UCSD in getting "back to being partners for better research."  

Apply for Borchard Center Academic Research Grants by October 15

Recently we posted information on the recent Borchard Center Law and Aging Fellowship award winner for 2015-16.  Now, we offer the reminder that applications for 2016 research grants from the Borchard Center are due by October 15, 2015.  More information, courtesy of Mary Jane Ciccarello, Co-Director at the Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging:

The Borchard Center on Law & Aging awards up to 4 grants of $20,000 each year. This Request for Proposals is open to all interested and qualified legal, health sciences, social sciences, and gerontology scholars and professionals. The research must address issues of law and aging. 

Organizations per se, whether profit or non-profit are not eligible to apply, although they may administer the grant. However, two or more individuals in the same institution or different institutions may submit a collaborative proposal. Grant recipients must be U.S. citizens or legal residents of the U.S. and must be affiliated with a U.S. based institution or organization. 

The objectives of the grants are to further research and scholarship about new or improved public policies, laws, and/or programs that will enhance the quality of life for the elderly, including those who are poor or otherwise isolated by lack of education, language, culture, disability, or other barriers.