Mediation jobs can include a wide-ranging variety of specialties from probate mediation to public policy mediation. With the aging of the American population, however, has emerged a new kind of specialty in the field: elder mediation.

Elder Mediation Jobs Deal with Family, Medical Conflicts

Elder mediation is, in principle, almost as broad as mediation itself since any dispute involving an elder would be considered "elder mediation.”  In practice, however, elder mediation usually involves older Americans who are either having conflicts with their relatives or with medical care facilities such as long-term nursing facilities.

Among disputes that involve family members, three common issues are financial matters, living arrangements, and medical decision-making.  Quite often, an elderly person's children or even grandchildren may feel that they have the right to make these decisions for the elder.  In some cases that may be a good practice, since some elders suffer from degenerative diseases that cause serious impacts to their critical thinking capacity.  In other situations, however, the elder may know what is best for him or her, and be unable to persuade the children of this fact.

A mediation attorney can help family members to resolve these disputes by helping them engage in structured discussions that assist everyone involved to see all sides of the issue.

Another common conflict in elder mediation involves cases in which two or more children cannot reach consensus about decisions regarding their father or mother.