MEDIATION
When a loved one has an increasing inability to make personal care or financial decisions, family members are often faced with many complex questions-
• Who will be the caretaker?
• How will we finance the services needed?
• Is guardianship necessary, or are there less intrusive alternatives?
Family members can disagree about the type of care needed for a loved one when faced with a changing and uncertain future. In these difficult conversations, communications between siblings, or siblings and parents, can become misunderstood and sometimes heated, and can often breakdown.
Mediation invites family members to come together voluntarily in a confidential setting to help resolve complex issues and move forward towards a workable solution for the protection and care of a loved one.
Attorney DiPaola, a certified mediator with advanced training in Elder/Adult Family Mediation, acts as a neutral third party and facilitates a process whereby family members:
1. Identify relevant issues.
2. Express concerns and priorities, each having an opportunity to be heard.
3. Receive factual information to aid in making informed decisions.
4. Generate alternatives, often a new way to look at the issue.
5. Find some common ground for a workable solution, and write up a mutually agreeable plan.
Mediation can be most useful in advance of a crisis when a family member first shows signs of diminished capacity. Mediation is effective in the midst of or just after an adult’s health crisis, to find a workable solution for short term and/or long term care.
Mediation is an alternative to a contested Guardianship litigation. After a Guardianship appointment, Mediation can help families work through unresolved issues regarding a Guardian’s decision-making authority.
To learn more about Mediation, contact Attorney DiPaola 781 642-0454.
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