Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging

Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging

Fellowship Activities

As the 1999-2000 fellow, Ms. Howard spent three months working for the American Bar Association Commission on Legal Problems of the elderly in Washington, D.C. She then volunteered at Georgia Legal Services, providing community education and basic legal services for the rural elderly citizens served by the Elder Law Project of Northwest Georgia. Through Legal Services, Ms. Howard was also involved in planning an Elder Abuse Prevention conference and worked at the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline. She also served as a teaching and research assistant for Professor Spurgeon’s multi-disciplinary class, Law, Public Policy and the Elderly, which was offered to law students and graduate students who are gerontology certificate candidates at the University of Georgia.

As the 2000-2001 fellow, Ms. Mustard co-authored with Edward D. Spurgeon Integrating Tax and Elder Law into Elder Law and Tax Courses, 34 Stetson Law Review 1375. In addition, Ms. Mustard coordinated and participated in the Borchard Conference on Legal and Ethical Issues in the Progression of Dementia held in Athens, Georgia in Nov. – Dec, 2000. Finally, she authored A Guide to Georgia Home Care Programs – A Resource for Elderly Georgia Residents and Their Families.

As the 2002-2003 fellow, Ms. Hamp designed an elder law clinic model that has been implemented at the University of Virginia School of Law. Additionally, she assisted in developing the curriculum for an elder law seminar taught at the law school in the spring of 2003. She also participated in an interdisciplinary research group that studied various aspects of elder mistreatment.

Jilenne Gunther was awarded the 2003-2004 Borchard Fellowship. As the Borchard Fellow, Ms. Gunther conducted the first legal needs assessment of seniors, surveying a representative sample of Utah’s seniors on a variety of legal issues. The data from the survey will help Utah’s legal service organizations use its resources to have the greatest impact as well as help attract additional funding. She reported on the study’s findings at the 2004 National Law and Aging Conference in Arlington, VA. Additionally, she authored and edited a handbook for Utah’s seniors on aging and law. She also guest lectured in the Elder Law Class at the University of Utah’s law school.

Ms. Morris was selected as a 2004-2005 fellow to undertake the North Bay Disability and Seniors’ Rights Project, serving the low-income senior and disabled residents of Marin and Napa Counties, California. Melissa provided individual representation and community education on a variety of legal issues commonly encountered by the low- and middle-income seniors of her community, including housing, disability access, and financial abuse.

As a 2004-2005 fellow, Mr. Rashkis designed and directed a free mediation program for senior citizens of California. The mediation program was implemented through the Senior Legal Hotline in Sacramento, California. In order to provide services for isolated seniors, a majority of mediations takes place via telephone, an innovative technique that has never been used before on a statewide level. In addition, Sean acted as a primary supervisor of all volunteer mediators, while also assisting in grant writing for this program. Sean also assisted the Senior Legal Hotline in implementing a program to better follow-up the concerns of telephone clients. In this process, he flagged cases for which law student interns and volunteers provided brief services beyond phone advice, such as writing letters to third parties or engaging in negotiations with third parties for clients.

As a 2004-2005 fellow, Ms. Wetzler created a consumer guide for residents in Utah’s Assisted Living Centers. She was an active member of the Utah Bar’s Needs of Elderly Committee, and a volunteer Long Term Care Ombudsman, advocating for residents in long term care facilities.

As a 2005-2006 Borchard Fellow, Ms. Zirker provided individual advocacy to senior and disabled residents of Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco. She also focused on elder law issues for Protection & Advocacy, Inc., providing assistance to PAI’s senior clients and acting as a liaison with other senior focused agencies in San Francisco and Oakland. In addition to direct service, Ms. Zirker addressed systemic change, including improving State Medicaid waivers and other Medicaid programs for seniors and people with disabilities. This advocacy included legal representation and working with legislators and state officials.

As a 2005-2006 Borchard Fellow, Anne Armistead provided English and Spanish-speaking senior kinship caregivers with legal services, referrals, and community legal education. Her project focused on legal services in the areas of custody, visitation, and standby guardianship petitions, but also included the general areas of personal planning, housing, consumer protection and other domestic issues. Ms. Armistead participated in community events to provide information and education about custody, visitation, and other issues affecting seniors raising children. She developed a Best Practices Handbook for attorneys and other service providers of senior kinship caregivers.

As a 2006-2007 Borchard Fellow, Ms. Zoubul will develop interdisciplinary educational project, “Educating for Professional Intersections in Law, Medicine & Advocacy.” The project will be undertaken jointly by Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Health, Science and Public Policy, the Divisions of Geriatrics and Medical Humanities at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and the Sarah Lawrence College Graduate Program in Health Advocacy. The project will bring together graduate students from the three different disciplines of law, medicine and health advocacy in a clinical program that will foster understanding and collaboration between the professions, By increasing opportunities for students to pursue a interdisciplinary approach to professional education, it will enable them to better serve the complex health-related needs of the elderly, ultimately improving the quality of patient care. Ms. Zoubul will also work part time at the Vera Institute of Justice’s Guardianship Project, which provides guardianship services for incapacitated individuals in the New York State court system.

As a 2006-2007 Borchard Fellow, Ms. Resan is working with the Wisconsin Guardianship Support Center of the Elder Law Center of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, on its Adult Protection Education Project. The Support Center is providing training to those impacted by recent changes in the guardianship, adult-at-risk abuse and reporting and protective services law, including county employees such as elder abuse investigators, case managers, adult protective service workers, and registers in probate; private hospital and nursing home staff; corporate, volunteer, and family guardians; and members of the private bar. Ms. Resan is doing detailed analysis of new legislation, producing training and outreach materials, and writing articles about topics included in the new legislation for various publications. Ms. Resan is also conducting training workshops in many locations throughout Wisconsin, reaching hundreds of participants. Ms. Resan also provides legal information, case consultation and referral services through the Wisconsin Guardianship Hotline. Additionally, Ms. Resan is providing direct legal services to local elders who could not otherwise afford representation through partnerships with the Elder Law Center and local private elder law practitioners.