MEDIATION WITH THE ELDERLY

I was once asked to mediate a court referred dispute between renters and a landlord over failure to do necessary repairs.

When the first met with the parties I found the renters to be a couple in their late-20s and the landlord to be a woman in her mid-80s. In that jurisdiction, as mediators receive no information about the case before the mediation, I began as usual with an introduction to the process and then by asking the plaintiffs, in this case the young couple, to describe the dispute. The first to speak said that she had grown up in the house next door and had known the landlord all her life. The second to speak described long needed extensive repairs to the house and their attempts to get the landlord to approve and promise to pay for the work. The landlord appeared to me to be confused by the situation and upon questions from me said that the house was in fine shape when she and her late husband had lived there.

At this point I needed to assure myself that the mediation would be a fair process. Ethically, I need to be assured that the parties are able to meaningfully and fully participate in the process and to make informed decisions for themselves. I asked the landlord if she would like someone to help her. She said yes. I then stopped the mediation and had her referred to an Office for the Aging.

i did so because issues involving the elderly can include challenges in communication, competency and even forms of abuse. There are obvious concerns about hearing and vision issues resulting in a party needing assistance. A mediator needs be assured that the party understands the issues and any relevant documents. In this case, I did ask the landlord to tell me what she understood her lease with the tenants to say about repairs. Her answer gave me insight as to her being fully able to participate in her best interest.

Finally, the mediator need be alert to the possibility of elder abuse. Most elder abuse involves people the older person trusts. Abuse can be physical as well as financial. According to a 2017 FBI report, some 50,000 people over 60 lost $343 million from financial exploitation and scams. The total cost of unreported abuse is much higher.

Weeks later I was the mediator on the same case, but this time the landlord had the assistance of an attorney from her local Office for the Aging. Her attorney helped her understand the dispute and the mediation process. As the mediator I only needed assurance that she understood and approved any decisions.

In that mediation it became clear that the renters had been defrauding the landlord by volunteering to deposit the rent directly to her bank account, when they were actually making reduced payments.

The mediation was the first step in righting this wrong.