Social Workers Conference to Explore Legal Issues and Elders
Contact: Nancy Kelly, 581-2378; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO – The University of Maine’s School of Social Work and Center on Aging are bringing geriatric social workers together with several Bangor area attorneys this week for a colloquium about issues both groups encounter in their work with older adults.
The colloquium is Friday, March 24 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Buchanan Alumni House on the Orono campus.
Response to the colloquium has been overwhelming, says Nancy Kelly, a UMaine lecturer and field coordinator of social work.
“We were hoping for 25-30 people,” Kelly says. “After 100 registrations, we had to start turning people away. There has been an excellent response. Obviously this is a huge topic.”
In addition to social workers, others who have signed up for the free colloquium include lawyers, paralegals, nursing home directors and recreational directors, health care professionals, state employees, UMaine students and others who do or will work with older adults.
Topics on the agenda include the attorney-client relationship and how it may affect the resolution of such issues as mental capacity and elderly clients, access to legal services for persons of low income, tranfers of assets and Medicaid, and elder abuse and exploitation.
Five lawyers whose practices include elder law or estate planning are scheduled to form the attorney panel. They are Ray M. Bradford, Jr., Robert S. Lingley, Julie Mallett, Leigh McCarthy and Jane Skelton. The panel also will include Martha E. Higgins, a licensed master’s social worker and a supervisor in the Office of Elder Services within the state Department of Health and Human Services. Bangor attorney Mary F. Kellogg, who is in her second year of the UMaine Master’s of Social Work program, will moderate the panel.
The mental capacity of a client is an example of an issue that a social worker and an attorney may need to address for many different reasons and vantage points. One of the goals of the colloquium is for both groups to better understand the other’s perspectives, ethical constraints and needs, according to Marjie Harris, coordinator of the Geriatric Practicum Partnership Program at UMaine, who is assisting with the colloquium planning.
As various stakeholders understand the different points of view, social workers, lawyers and others can better meet the needs of a growing aging population more harmoniously, Kelly says.
The colloquium is made possible with funding from the Center on Aging, the New York Academy of Medicine, the John A. Harford Foundation and the Social Work Leadership Institute. It is part of the University’s Maine Geriatric Practicum Partnership Program Colloquium Series. The mission of the program is to increase the number of future social workers in the field of gerontology.
More information is available by contacting Harris by email at marjie.harris@umit.maine.edu