Association for Conflict Resolution Guidelines for Eldercaring Coordinators

• Published date: 01 October 2015
• Author: Sue Bronson,Hon. Michelle Morley,Linda Fieldstone
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12172
• Date: 01 October 2015

SPECIAL FEATURE

ASSOCIATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION GUIDELINES

FOR ELDERCARING COORDINATORS

with Foreword by Linda Fieldstone,

Sue Bronson, and Hon. Michelle Morley

On November 6, 2014, the AFCC Board of Directors endorsed the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) Guidelines for

Eldercaring Coordination, including ethical principles for Eldercaring Coordinators, training protocols, and court pilot project

template. The collaboration between Task Forces created by ACR and the Florida Chapter of AFCC, composed of twenty

U.S./Canadian and twenty Florida-wide organizations, produced both an overarching guide to assist in the development of pro-

grams and a more detailed model addressing state/province-specific needs and characteristics. Eldercaring coordination is a

dispute resolution option specifically for high-conflict cases involving the care, needs, and safety of elders.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

There are currently no dispute resolution options for parties involved in high-conflict cases regarding the care, needs,

and safety of an elder.

The ACR Guidelines for Eldercaring Coordination address the discrepancies between dispute resolution options avail-

able for parents in conflict regarding their minor children and mature families with unresolved concerns about the care,

needs, and safety of an elder.

The ACR Guidelines for Eldercaring Coordination provide information regarding the ethical practice of eldercaring

coordination including a specific definition, recommended qualifications, ethical practices, grievance procedures, train-

ing protocols, and a court pilot project template.

The practice of eldercaring coordination will address the influx of court cases expected as baby boomers continue to

age, reducing delays in court hearings, as parties will have the opportunity to resolve their concerns without continuous

court attention.

As of June 2015, five states began Pilot Projects on Eldercaring Coordination, which will be studied by an independent

research group to enhance the progress of the process and to develop the best practices for initiating the programs elsewhere.

Keywords: Aging; Dispute Resolution; Elder Court Programs; Elder Mediation; Elders; and High-Conflict Families.

FOREWORD

On November 6, 2014, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) Board of

Directors endorsed the Association for Conflict Resolution Guidelines for Eldercaring Coordination

(ACR Guidelines), acknowledging that families do not age out of need as they mature. According to

the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics (2012), the numbers of elders is antici-

pated to double in the United States between 2008 and 2030, as baby boomers continue to reach 65

years old and beyond. Accordingly, the influx of court cases pertaining to the care, needs, and safety

of elders is expected to increase significantly. Unlike parents with children of minor age, who have

parenting coordination as a dispute resolution option, there is no comparable alternative for more

mature families in high conflict involving issues regarding an elder. To address this issue, a ground-

breaking collaboration ensued between the Florida Chapter of the AFCC (FLAFCC) and the ACR,

where each formed a Task Force on Eldercaring Coordination composed of 20 statewide and 20

U.S./Canadian organizations, respectively (see Appendix A and Appendix B for list of organizations

Correspondence: Lfieldstone@jud11.flcourts.org

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and representatives for each Task Force). The mission of the Task Forces was to use parenting coor-

dination as a model “to develop a dispute resolution option specifically for high conflict cases involv-

ing issues related to the care and safety of elders in order to complement and enhance, not replace,

other services such as provision of legal information or legal representation, individual/family ther-

apy, medical, psychological or psychiatric evaluation, or mediation.”

In 2013, Linda Fieldstone, Past President of AFCC, former President of FLAFCC, and Secretary of

the AFCC Task Force onParenting Coordination (which developed the Guidelines for Parenting Coor-

dinators in 2005), received support from the Elder Section of ACR, as well as the leadership of

FLAFCC, to assist her with this project. Parenting coordination arose independently across the United

States and Canada without any standardization or even awareness between parenting coordinators and

programs. To address those issues, Fieldstone first attempted to ascertain if a similar practice or court

program already existed that addressed high-conflict cases with elders. The National Council of Juve-

nile and Family Court Judges assisted her in the search and found no similar court-connected practices

or court programs. Fieldstone then approached AFCC, and Executive Director Peter Salem validated

that Sue Bronson, family and elder mediator and trainer and then Co-Chair of the ACR Elder Section,

would be a wonderful partner to assist her in this endeavor. On the local level, Fieldstone approached

FLAFCC President Judge Sandy Karlan, who received unanimous backing from her board to support

this project. FLAFCC was the driving force behind the development of parenting coordination in Flor-

ida and convened its Parenting Coordination Task Force, which led eventually to statutory legislation,

Family Court Rules of Procedure, and Supreme Court Administrative Order for Parenting Coordina-

tion. Judge Michelle Morley was appointed as co-chair of the Eldercaring Coordination Task Force

because she was very familiar with parenting coordination as a circuit court judge in rural Sumter

County, Florida,and also because she presided in guardianship cases involving elders and caregivers.

The vision was that both the FLAFCC and ACR Task Forces for Eldercaring Coordination would

be comprised of Florida-specific and U.S./Canadian organizations, withadvisory committees of experts

in related fields. Their initial goal was to engage 9 organizations each, but the interest was so great that

the number of member organizations for each Task Force quickly rose to 20. It appeared that other

organizations’ leadership also recognized how high-conflict family dynamics may jeopardize the safety

and well-being of the elder, delay medical treatment and court processes, affect compliance with court

orders, and undermine the effectiveness of guardianship and other designationsby the court. Moreover,

they perceived the growing need to address high-conflict issues concerning elders with less adversarial

court processes, whenever possible. In comparison to elder mediation, which addresses issues between

parties in the resolution process, the eldercaring coordinator (EC) would serve cases in which the con-

flict is so enmeshed between the parties that they are not able to focus productively on the issues at

hand. The EC concentrates on managing the conflict, enabling the parties to proceed more effectively

and work with the community resources available to assistthe elder and caregivers.

The two Task Forces worked concurrently and collaboratively since their first separate meetings

in June 2013.The ACR Task Force provided the overarching framework needed to serve as a guide

for states and provinces to develop Eldercaring Coordination Programs, and the FLAFCC Task Force

demonstrated how that framework could be honed according to an individual state’s needs and char-

acteristics. It is important to emphasize the benefits of this collaboration. Each Task Force raised dif-

ferent points in discussions that altered the work of the other. Additionally, information gathered or

created in one Task Force was shared at each step to provide a foundation for discussion and adop-

tion when possible to reduce the workload of the other.

The Task Force work was divided into three stages, with Stage One focused on the development of

the ACR and FLAFCC Guidelines. The result was a work product of each Task Force that includes:

1. Ethical Guidelines for Eldercaring Coordination, including definitions and qualifications;

2. Recommended Complaints/Grievance Procedure;

3. Eldercaring Coordination Training Guidelines and Protocols;

4. Court Pilot Project Proposal Template, including recommended complaints procedure,

standardized Order of Referral, and eldercaring coordination forms; and

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