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Planning to Age with Dignity:
Legal Planning for Incapacity
Recognizing that
dementing illnesses impact elders and their families not only
physically, emotionally, and financially but legally,
SeniorLAW Center has launched a new program funded by
Independence Foundation to provide education and advance
planning services to Philadelphia seniors at risk for dementing
illness or dementia; i.e. Alzheimer’s disease and related
progressive memory disorders. SeniorLAW Center’s program strives
to educate seniors -- as well as their families and professionals
who work with seniors in the medical, mental health and aging
services communities -- about the importance of using legal tools
to promote seniors’ dignity and autonomy.
Focusing on low-income
and other vulnerable communities of seniors, SeniorLAW Center will
provide free legal assistance with springing and durable powers of
attorney, advance health care directives, simple wills, special
needs trusts, and standby guardianships. The latter enables
grandparents and other elders who have custody of minor children
to designate a person to act as guardian in the event the elder
becomes incapacitated.
By targeting seniors before a diagnosis is made
or soon after diagnosis, and collaborating with medical, mental
health, long-term care and other professionals, this project aims
to promote and preserve the decisions and dignity of this
population. These services will also seek to prevent catastrophic
situations (for example, “suddenly” having to go into a nursing
home or an unexpected termination of support services) at a time
when a senior may not be able to effectively advocate on his or
her own behalf to obtain or retain the services required.
Perhaps the most
significant impact that advance planning services can have is to
prevent the imposition of guardianship over the senior.
Guardianship is a court-supervised
process that is complex and expensive. Moreover, it takes an
emotional toll on families who bear witness to what can be a
dehumanizing process for the senior. By preserving their
wishes through an advance planning tool, seniors at risk for
incapacity can hopefully spare their families the heartache and
expense of the guardianship process.
Independence Foundation
generously funds this new legal project through its innovative
Public Interest Law Fellowship Program, which enables young
lawyers to work with a public interest legal services agency on a
project designed to meet an unmet need. Created in 1996, the
Fellowship supports direct legal services for disadvantaged
clients who cannot otherwise obtain access to the justice
system. The Foundation fully funds the compensation and benefits
of a new public interest lawyer, as well as providing law school
repayment assistance. The Foundation’s Fellowship program has
funded over 30 new public interest attorneys, having a direct
impact on the lives of thousands of people who would otherwise
have been unable to obtain the legal assistance they need to
navigate the complicated judicial and administrative systems.
For more information about this project or SeniorLAW Center’s
services and programs for senior citizens in need, please contact
Project Director Chari Alson Maddren at (215) 988-1244 ext. 119. |
