Elder Law Prof Blog

Did You Miss These Two Items?

A dear friend of mine sent me this short video on how to make a SNF resident's room more easily identifiable to them: https://www.tiktok.com/@designsecretsss/video/7184175944666516779

Also, the latest edition of the Journal of Elder Policy has been published and is available here. The Journal is "an interdiscplinary journal about old age and policy", and prior issues can be accessed through the landing page.

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 mjc@borchardcenter.org.

Another Article on the Impact of Family Caregiving

On several occassions we've pointed out issues surrounding the need for caregiving and families stepping up to fill the role.  Add this article from the New York Times to the library of articles on the topic. The Quiet Cost of Family Caregiving focuses on the impact on the individuals providing care, especially if they are working. For example, "Caregivers who are employed often reduce their work hours or leave the workplace altogether, research has shown. Several recent studies, however, reveal the impact of these decisions in more detail, not only on working caregivers but on employers and the general economy." The article looks at the data on those who reduce hours or leave the workforce and the gender differences on those leaving the work force.  This is an important article-read it!

Practice Tip for Older Student Loan Debtors

The National Center on  Law & Elder Rights has released a new practice tip, Cancellation of Debt & Other Changes to the Federal Student Loan System that Impact Older Borrowers.

Student loan debt is one of the biggest contributors to the rise in the amount of debt held by older adults. According to AARP, in 2020 8.4 million borrowers age 50 and older held 22% of the total federal student debt load, amounting to $336.1 billion. The average amount of student loan debt carried by families headed by adults 50 or older was $36,421 in 2019. This includes older borrowers who took out loans for their own education or to pay for a family member’s education. Default on student loans can result in aggressive collection actions, including the garnishment of wages and Social Security benefits, and an accumulation of fees and interest. Older adults consistently report difficulty managing their student loan debt while trying to stay on track to save for retirement or pay for other necessary expenses on reduced retirement incomes. This results in financial instability, especially for low-income older adults and those on f ixed-incomes.

The practice tip includes discussion of the moratorium on student loan collections, debt cancellation, public service loan foregiveness, changes under discussion for income-based repayment plans, and links to helpful resources. 

Companies Eliminating Mandatory Retirement to Keep Older Executives

According to an article in the Washington Post, Target is the latest corporation to ditch its mandatory age retirement policy in order to keep an older exec. Target axes mandatory retirement age as CEOs stay on the job longer 

explains Target joins other large corporations that have done away with the age limit for their execs as "a way to keep high-performing executives in their jobs... Older executives are sticking around longer, with the average age of an outgoing chief executive reaching 64 in 2021, up from 61 in 2020, according to research from SpencerStuart, which tracks data on CEO transitions."  The article looks at research and notes the trend to do away with these types of policys, as well as noting some the ages of some famous execs who worked for many years.

The Myriad Benefits Available to Older Persons

Kaiser Health News published a recent article that focused on the various programs and benefits for older persons that they may not know about.  While Inflation Takes a Toll on Seniors, Billions of Dollars in Benefits Go Unused offers these examples to make the point:

A few examples: Nearly 14 million adults age 60 or older qualify for aid from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as food stamps) but haven’t signed up, according to recent estimates. Also, more than 3 million adults 65 or older are eligible but not enrolled in Medicare Savings Programs, which pay for Medicare premiums and cost sharing. And 30% to 45% of seniors may be missing out on help from the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy program, which covers plan premiums and cost sharing and lowers the cost of prescription drugs.

And yes, the article acknowledges that for many programs, eligibility is based on a means test, while for others, it's just a priority.  The article offers tips to find out if an older person is eligible for any of these programs, starting with the local Area Agency on Aging.

A Few Interesting Articles

I'm a bit behind and in an effort to catch up, in this post I just wanted to point out to you a few interesting articles that you hmay want to read.

1.  A robot that will catch an older person who is falling:  This robot catches grandma before she falls.

2. Probiotics and arthritis: Rheumatoid arthritis could be treated by eating probiotic bacteria.

3. Advance detection of Alzheimer's before symptoms manifest:  New Device Can Detect Alzheimer’s 17 Years in Advance

(Thanks to my dear friend Professor Feeley for sending me the links to the last two).

No Victim Blaming in Financial Fraud

A recent report from AARP and FINRA reminds us to not blame victims of financial frauds. The new report, Blame and Shame in the Context of Financial Fraud points out that "[t]The practice of victim blaming—assigning responsibility to the targets of a crime rather than to the perpetrators—is not a new practice in American society. But this project unearthed ample evidence that victim-blaming practices can shift, and that although often our words blame fraud victims, it isn’t necessarily our intent to hold them accountable." The report discusses why we blame victims, examined the "dimensions of victim blaming", and "reframing" our habit of blaming the victim.  The report gives 5 suggestions for shifting the focus of the conversation and concludes with opportunities for changing the focus.

Horse Therapy Provides Boost to Elders with Dementia

Ending the week on happy note due to this Washington Post article, A ‘magical’ treatment for seniors with dementia: Horse therapy.

Painting [on the horses] is not mandatory in this equine-assisted learning program, but it is one of the many ways participants are taught to engage with horses, with the goal of stimulating their minds and bodies. Since 2017, Simple Changes Therapeutic Riding Center in Mason Neck, Va., has teamed up with Goodwin Living, a senior living and health-care facility in Alexandria, to introduce residents with cognitive impairment and anxiety to the residents of its barn.

Up to six people at a time participate in the four-week sessions, which include horse identification, grooming, feeding, leading, discussing equine literature, poetry and haiku writing, and making horse treats. The collaboration began when Barbara Bolin, a social worker at Goodwin House Alexandria and a lifelong rider and horse owner, reached out to Corliss Wallingford, the nonprofit equine therapy organization’s executive director.

Read the article and look at the accompanying photos. Doing so will end your week with a smile.

Aging Too Expensive For Many?

Last week, Kaiser Health News ran a concerning article, ‘True Cost of Aging’ Index Shows Many Seniors Can’t Afford Basic Necessities. "

More than half of older women living alone — 54% — are in a similarly precarious financial situation: either poor according to federal poverty standards or with incomes too low to pay for essential expenses. For single men, the share is lower but still surprising — 45%.

That’s according to a valuable but little-known measure of the cost of living for older adults: the Elder Index, developed by researchers at the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

A new coalition, the Equity in Aging Collaborative, is planning to use the index to influence policies that affect older adults, such as property tax relief and expanded eligibility for programs that assist with medical expenses. Twenty-five prominent aging organizations are members of the collaborative.

The goal is to fuel a robust dialogue about “the true cost of aging in America,” which remains unappreciated, said Ramsey Alwin, president and chief executive of the National Council on Aging, an organizer of the coalition.

The Index provides data for states, cities and counties, truly a valuable amount of information.  Consider in addition the inflation we are currently experiencing. Read the entire article. It's sobering.

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, mjc@borchardcenter.org.

One Downside to Caregiver Shortages

Of course there  are many downsides to caregiver shortgages.  Add to that the hot employment market and you can see the problem-the family caregiver has an opportunity to enter the workforce but the  lack of caregiver options prevents the family member from taking a job.  The New York Times dicussed this dilemma in  Jobs Aplenty, but a Shortage of Care Keeps Many Women From Benefiting.

A dearth of child care and elder care choices is causing many women to reorganize their working lives and prompting some to forgo jobs altogether, hurting the economy at a moment when companies are desperate to hire, and forcing trade-offs that could impair careers.

****

Those forced to cut back on work could face lasting disadvantages. They are missing out on an unusual moment of worker power, in which many employees are bargaining for higher wages or switching to more lucrative jobs. Right now, the fields where women are most concentrated — including service sector jobs in hospitality and health care — have some of the most openings and the most rapidpay growth.

Are we moving towards any viable solutions any time soon?

Multi-Generational Housing Article

Last week the Wt featured an article about an elder taking on a college student as her roommate. One roommate is 85, the other is 27. Such arrangements are growing. For these two roommates, they learned about each other through an agency, "Nesterly, an online home-sharing agency that matches young renters with not-so-young people looking to supplement their incomes and share their space."  The arrangement is more than just renting space. For these two roommates, "[the owner] would rent the first floor of her home to [the college student] for $700 a month in exchange for help with the housework and gardening and occasional grocery runs. And [the college student] would get a safe and spacious place to live just six miles from Boston and a 30-minute drive from her robotics engineering job in Beverly, Mass.

Is multi-generational housing growing in popularity? According to the article

About 18 percent of Americans live in multigenerational households — meaning two or more adult generations — according to a study from Pew Research Center published this year. Such arrangements have quadrupled in the United States since the 1970s, with about 60 million U.S. residents now living with adults who are of a different generation, according to the study.

Contributing to that trend is that more young people are priced out of the housing market and more seniors want to age in place, said  [the] executive director of Generations United, a D.C.-based organization that focuses on programs and policies that connect generations.

The article notes that some universities offer such intergenerational roommate matching programs.Seems like a win-win!

Stetson Law Hiring for 3 Entry Level Tenure Track Faculty

Stetson is seeking 3 entry level tenture track faculty for Fall 2023 for several subject areas.  The ad follows.

POSITION: TENURE-TRACK PROFESSOR OF LAW

STETSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW seeks to fill at least three entry-level tenure-track positions.  While our needs are flexible, we are particularly focused on Contracts, Torts, and Legal Research and Writing, as well as the areas of the Uniform Commercial Code, Professional Responsibility, Intellectual Property (emphasis on Patent Law), and Health Law. We may also have a need for Spring 2023 visitors in Legal Research and Writing and Torts. Other doctrinal areas may be considered depending on our developing institutional needs.

Located in Florida’s Tampa Bay area, the nation’s nineteenth largest metro area, Stetson was established in 1900 and is Florida’s oldest law school. Our main campus is in Gulfport, just outside St. Petersburg. We also have a part-time program with classes on both the main campus and our satellite campus in downtown Tampa. Stetson has earned a national reputation for its advocacy program, which is ranked #3 in U.S. News and World Report, and its elder law and higher education programs, with Centers for Excellence in Advocacy, Elder Law, and Higher Education Law and Policy. Stetson also has achieved a national reputation in legal writing, with its legal writing program also ranked #3 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Stetson is the home for the Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication, the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, and the Veterans Law Institute.

Stetson nurtures a vibrant intellectual community, situated on a beautiful campus. We encourage potential applicants to visit our website at https://www.stetson.edu/portal/law/ to learn more about our school, our community, and our programs. The law school is a part of Stetson University, which is located in DeLand, Florida, approximately three hours from the law school. The University features include a College of Arts and Sciences, a School of Music, and a School of Business Administration, the latter of which supports the law school’s JD/MBA program.

Stetson encourages applications from women, persons of color, LGBTQ+ candidates, and others who will contribute to our stimulating and diverse cultural and intellectual environment. Applicants must have a strong academic record and be committed to outstanding teaching and scholarship. Stetson’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy is available at https://www.stetson.edu/administration/human-resources/media/hotline/eeo-non-discrimination.pdf.

SALARY: Salary is competitive

STARTING DATE: August 2023

APPLICATION:

Applicants should send a cover letter indicating teaching and scholarly interests, a current curriculum vitae, and contact information for at least three professional references to Professors Jason Palmer and Rebecca Morgan at facultyappointments@law.stetson.edu or by standard mail to Professors Palmer and Morgan at Stetson University College of Law, 1401 61st Street South, Gulfport, FL 33707. The Faculty Appointments Committee will continue to review applications until positions are filled.

Population Continues to Age

That title sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it? A recent Washington Post story, U.S. continues to get older and more diverse, new estimates show, is about the recently released Census report.

Since 2000, the national median age has increased by 3.4 years to 38.8, with the largest single-year gain of 0.3 years coming in 2021, the year after the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to the bureau’s new 2021 population estimates, an annual data set that is used to fine-tune and update existing statistics.

The birthrate nationwide has been declining, and decreased immigration levels have accelerated the decline.

Between 2020 and 2021, 47 states and the D.C. saw an increase in median age; only Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia had no change in median age.

The Northeast was the oldest region in 2021, with a median age of 40.4, followed by the Midwest (39.0), the South (38.6) and the West, which saw the largest increase, up 0.3 years to 37.7, the bureau said.

The full Census report is available here.

Pandemic Retirees Unretiring?

The Washington Post recently published Millions retired early during the pandemic. Many are now returning to work, new data shows. Although a significant number of folks retired early, 

An estimated 1.5 million retirees have reentered the U.S. labor market over the past year, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by ... an economist.... That means the economy has made up most of the extra losses of retirees since February 2020, a Washington Post analysis shows.

Many retirees are being pulled back to jobs by a combination of diminishing covid concerns and more flexible work arrangements at a time when employers are desperate for workers. In some cases, workers say rising costs — and the inability to keep up while on a fixed income — are factoring heavily into their decisions as well.

But those reentering the work force are not just those who retired during the pandemic. 

The percentage of retirees returning to work has picked up momentum in recent months, hitting a pandemic high of 3.2 percent in March, according to Indeed. In interviews with nearly a dozen workers who recently “un-retired," many said they felt comfortable returning to work now that they’ve gotten the coronavirus vaccine and booster shots. Almost all said they’d taken on jobs that were more accommodating of their needs, whether that meant being able to work remotely, travel less or set their own hours.

The article provides a number of interesting examples of individuals who are "unretiring" and why they chose to do so.

Caregiving's Impact on the Work Force

Last month, the Washington Post ran this article, Caring for aging parents, sick spouses is keeping millions out of work.

Even as the job market rapidly approaches the levels last seen before the coronavirus pandemic, a lack of affordable care for older and disabled adults is keeping many out of the workforce. At least 6.6 million people who weren’t working in early March said it was because they were caring for someone else, according the most recent Household Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau.Whether — and when — they return to work will play a role in the continued recovery and could reshape the post-covid labor force.

Read these next two paragraphs from the article very carefully:

For all the attention on parents — and mothers in particular — who stopped working to care for children during the pandemic, four times as many people are out of the work force, caring for spouses, siblings, aging parents and grandchildren, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Monetary Policy Report.

...

Caregiving is the second-largest factor keeping people out of work, behind early retirements, at a time when job openings continue to outnumber potential workers. That mismatch is contributing to labor shortages around the country and playing a role in overall inflation. Roughly one-quarter of the workers missing from pre-pandemic levels are on the sidelines for caregiving reasons, according to the report. Overall, the economy is still short 1.6 million workers, two-thirds of them women, from early 2020.

Did you catch those numbers?  4x as many folks are not working because of caregiving responsibilities, and caregiving is the 2nd most common reason why folks aren't working.

Read the article. It's important!

Working Longer Means Fewer Years of Healthy Retirement?

Earlier this month, Forbes  ran this article, American Elders Are Short-Changed 5 Years Of Healthy Retirement,  which explains that

America’s elders die sooner and are sicker than their counterparts in other rich nations. American elders also must work longer than their cohort abroad. These trends mean that Americans get fewer years of healthy retirement life than elders in comparable wealthy nations—five years less, in fact.

One reason for this big gap in healthy retirement is the pressure for American elders to work longer. Among major rich nations, Americans work longer than anyone except the Japanese, who retire at age 67.9 while Americans work until age 65 on average; but the Japanese live longer, so experience more healthy retirement time.

Consider this from the author: "It's sad to know that America’s de facto plan for retirement is working longer and dying sooner. This inequality of retirement time is caused by the crossing of two swords: the growing inequality of retirement wealth and the growing inequality of longevity. These inequities are deeply connected. If people who die younger could retire earlier than those with longer and healthier lives, retirement time could at least be distributed more equally."

The full article discussing life expectancy in the U.S. and abroad, as well as work histories, is available here.

New Report on Direct Care Workforce

PHI has released a new report,  State Policy Strategies for Strengthening the Direct Care Workforce.

Recognizing the urgency of the crisis in direct care, states are taking action—collaborating with diverse stakeholders to tackle entrenched workforce challenges in bold, innovative ways. To leverage this historic moment, PHI has compiled 24 specific policy strategies—with concrete examples—for improving direct care job quality and stabilizing the workforce. The strategies are organized according to the eight comprehensive solutions outlined in PHI’s signature report, Caring for the Future: The Power and Potential of America’s Direct Care Workforce.

Here are 3 takeaways from the report:

• This guide provides 24 specific policy strategies for improving direct care job quality and stabilizing the workforce.

• State leaders around the country are taking action to tackle entrenched workforce challenges in direct care.

• By implementing a tailored combination of strategies, state leaders will help resolve the direct care workforce crisis in their own states.

The full report is available here.

National Guardianship Network New Video

The National Guardianship Network [Has Released A] New Video with Recommendations for Reforming Guardianship System.This video 

showcases the highlights of the Fourth National Guardianship Summit and the 22 recommendations to reform and improve state guardianship systems. The video also addresses the history of these national summits, the importance of the Fourth Summit and the main topics discussed during the Summit:

• Rights of Persons Subject to Guardianship

• Supported Decision-Making

• Limited Guardianship, Protective Arrangements, and Guardianship Pipelines

• Rethinking Monitoring and Addressing Abuse by Guardians

• Fiduciary Responsibilities and Tensions

• Developing a Guardianship Court Improvement Program

To view the video, click here.