Elder Mediation: What's in a Name?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21118
• Published date: 01 July 2015
• Date: 01 July 2015

C R Q, vol. 32, no. 4, Summer 2015 435

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the Association for Conf‌l ict Resolution

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21118

Elder Mediation: What’s in a Name?

Lise Barry

As an emerging discipline, specialist elder mediation has been char-

acterized by diversity, with developments in the f‌i eld often driven by

the needs of family members, caregivers, health professionals, and the

legal fraternity rather than the consumer demands of the elderly them-

selves. In this environment, there is a danger that the voice of elders

will be forgotten or marginalized. At its best, elder mediation can play

an important role in giving voice to older participants and ensuring

that their will and preferences take center stage. At worst, elder media-

tion could play a role in increasing the vulnerability of older people by

providing a forum that gives only lip-service to their rights.  e author

urges the elder mediation movement to ask, “What’s in a name?” and

suggests that the term elder mediation is most properly considered an

umbrella term referring to the specialist knowledge of the mediators

and the obligation to accommodate the participation of older people in

decisions that af‌f ect them.  e author argues that mediators should be

specif‌i c about the process they are providing under that banner and that

one way this can be achieved is through careful naming of the practice

and procedures.

It is not uncommon for articles on the topic of elder mediation to begin

with a comment about the diversity of the f‌i eld and the wide-ranging top-

ics that are subject to an elder mediation (McCreary 2008).  is can lead

to uncertainty about what the f‌i eld stands for. Def‌i nitions of elder media-

tion vary, and not all models focus specif‌i cally on the rights of older people

to participate in making decisions that af‌f ect them. In this article, I argue

that the “elder mediation” tag should be used largely as an umbrella term to

denote the following specif‌i c attributes: the skills, training, and ethics of the

mediator and an expectation that the mediation will accommodate the right