Mediation of Age-Related Issues

What is Elder Mediation?

Elder mediation is a voluntary, cooperative process with a professionally trained elder mediator. The mediator facilitates discussions between everyone involved and helps develop options or outcomes to manage changes and stresses throughout the family life cycle.

Mediators control the process, assist respectful communication, but do not give advice, take sides, or make judgments. Discussions are confidential and held in a private, safe setting. Any agreement must be acceptable to all participants.

Elder mediation is a specialized approach in Australia, requiring mediators to be mindful of older adults' rights, including their right to participate in decision-making about their lives, with or without capacity.

To practice ethically, qualified elder mediators need:

• Special sensitivities
• Knowledge of age-related policies, issues, practices, and processes
• Awareness of the subtle effects of ageism on themselves and others, including older adults.

[Image: Close-up of an elderly woman's face.]

When Can Elder Mediation Be Helpful?

Elder mediation is often necessary when older people need support to make their own decisions. This includes situations with allegations of elder abuse, conflicts, or complaints involving family members and significant others.

Older individuals may rely on family members, whose decisions can be influenced or overridden in care planning, especially with ageist attitudes, power imbalances, or threats of abuse or neglect.

Research shows older people can be distressed by family conflicts or conflicts with others (e.g., neighbours, carers, service providers). They often avoid legal solutions when family is involved, making mediation an alternative route.

Mediation can also be for difficult conversations or proactive planning, not just conflict resolution.

The focus is on promoting effective, inclusive, and respectful behaviours, decisions, and actions for all participants.

How Does Elder Mediation Work?

Elder mediation offers older people a chance to discuss their wishes, preferences, values, and risks with family and others. They can acknowledge their need for assistance without fear of a ruling of incapacity.

Mediators are trained to work with groups, including support people, advocates, representatives, or service providers. They may refer to other services to ensure the older person is supported.

[Image: An elderly couple looking away, the man has his arm around the woman.]

Participants in Elder Mediation

An elder mediation might include:

• The older person
• The provider (e.g., aged care provider)
• A support person or advocate
• Family members
• Significant others such as friends, neighbours, carers, social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurses, medical practitioners, lawyers, or financial advisers.

For individuals with questions about physical, mental, or legal capacity, mediators can make accommodations, such as separate meetings or involving interpreters or support persons.

Elder mediation uses a person-centred wellness model, focusing on the best interests, safety, and rights of older persons, ensuring their voice is heard in decision-making.

[Image: Close-up of an elderly woman's face.]

Typical Issues for Elder Mediation

Elder mediation promotes positive, respectful communication and involves informal and formal supports for older people and their families. It can address various issues of ageing, with potential for abuse or neglect in each:

• Health and medical care (at home, in the community, hospital, continuing care, long-term care)
• Aged care issues and complaints
• Progressive dementias and other memory, cognitive, and neurological impairments
• Informal and formal caregiving
• Financial issues
• Guardianship issues
• Housing issues
• Living arrangements
• Intergenerational relationship issues
• New marriages and step-relative issues
• Religious issues
• Cultural issues
• Gender and LGBTQIA+ issues
• Indigenous issues
• Family business issues
• Driving issues
• Abuse, safety issues, self-neglect
• Legal issues (estates, inheritance, wills, medical and legal powers of attorney)
• End-of-life planning and decision-making.

Mediation can help add, improve, preserve, or restore relationships through a non-adversarial model of communication and opportunities for therapeutic and practical discussions.

It allows participants to contribute concerns and ideas freely to protect the safety, rights, wishes, and preferences of the older person and maintain supportive relationships.

Elder Mediation and Elder Abuse

Older people may need support for decision-making when risks, allegations, or suspicions of elder abuse, complex family dynamics, or family pressure exist.

Elder mediators use a holistic approach, screening for capacity and abuse, facilitating meetings, and handling complex dynamics. They ensure the safety, rights, and preferences of older people are upheld.

Elder abuse is often secretive. Mediators assess the risk, presence, type, level, and extent of mistreatment to determine interventions.

Meeting participants separately helps identify unrecognized or difficult-to-prove suspicions of abuse or neglect. Mediators provide a safe environment for this identification.

Referrals and plans are made to prevent future abuse or neglect and address past issues.

A key challenge is balancing protection of vulnerable older people with promoting their independence and respecting their right to make decisions, even those with potential risks (the 'dignity of risk').

Elder mediators cannot be neutral to behaviours threatening safety. If identified, they must refer the case to an appropriate body.

[Image: Close-up of an elderly man's face.]

Elder Mediation and Elder Law

Elder mediation assists the elder law system by addressing issues the legal system cannot, such as:

• Ageist, gendered, cultural, and Indigenous attitudes and values
• Family history and intergenerational dynamics
• Issues of autonomy, safety, trauma, and the dignity of risk
• Interpersonal estrangement or conflict
• Quality-of-life choices.

Mediators need knowledge of relevant legislation and policies, including reporting requirements for abuse. They know when and where to refer individuals for other resources or services.

They maintain knowledge of services available to older people, their families, and caregivers, including local programs for medical, legal, cultural, therapeutic, and social support.

Elder Mediator Code of Ethics, Training, and Certification

Australia has increasing numbers of trained and certified elder mediators, many affiliated with the Elder Mediation Australasian Network (EMAN).

Recognised mediators in Australia are accredited by the Australian Mediator and Dispute Resolution Accreditation Standards (AMDRAS) Board or are accredited Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) Practitioners, or have equivalent training and experience.

AMDRAS-recognised elder mediators in Australia have:

• Completed required AMDRAS mediation accreditation.
• Completed an additional 30 hours of training in ageing and age-related issues with an Elder Mediation International Network (EMIN) Certified trainer.
• Been certified by EMIN and AMDRAS as an elder mediator.

The AMDRAS Board approved a submission for elder mediation to be a specialization in Australian mediation accreditation standards, with specific EMIN certification requirements. Trained and certified mediators must be familiar with and abide by the EMIN Code of Ethics for Elder Mediators and Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults: Guidelines for Elder Mediators.

To find an elder mediator:

• Contact Relationships Australia in your state or territory via their Contact webpage.
• Contact a member of the EMAN Board or Resolution Institute Elder Mediation Sub-Committee.

EMAN is developing a directory of specially trained elder mediators for publication on its and the Resolution Institute's websites.

For more information on elder mediation education, training, and certification, email the Chair of EMAN, Professor Dale Bagshaw, at dale.bagshaw@unisa.edu.au.