Project Details
About
CWAG
Membership
Events/Training
Legislative Issues
Publications
Document Contents
- Overview
- Legal Representation Experience
- Elder Law Center Volunteer Experience
- Coordination With The Aging Network
Overview
CWAG's Elder Law Center was formed on October 1, 1991, when the Elderly Team of the Center for Public Representation transferred to CWAG. Current Elder Law Center projects include: Legal Back-Up and Representation (with current funding from the Northern, Southern , Bay and Western Area Agencies on Aging) providing legal back-up and training to benefit specialists in 58 counties of Wisconsin assisting over 12,000 senior citizens annually; Direct Benefit Specialist Services (with funding from Dane County Human Services Department) providing direct services to over 1,400 Dane County residents age 60 and over annually); Wisconsin Guardianship Support Center (with funding from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services) operating a toll- free telephone hotline, publishing a quarterly newsletter, organizing training programs and producing publications on issues of guardianship and advance planning alternatives; Law Student Training, teaching "Law and the Elderly" seminar at the University of Wisconsin Law School annually and supervising law student interns on various elder law projects; Community-Coordinated Elder Abuse Prevention and Representation Project (with funding from Age Advantage and Bay Area Agencies on Aging) providing trainings, materials, pro bono development and in-services to counties regarding elder abuse; and Consumer Education conducting workshops and developing, producing and marketing publications on issues of interest to the elderly, their families and professionals working with the elderly.
Relevant projects from recent years include: Medicare/Medicaid Training Project (with funds from the American Association of Retired Persons) provided training to groups of A.A.R.P. volunteers on Medicare, supplemental insurance and Medicaid; Medicare-Medicaid-Insurance Clearinghouse (with funding from the Wisconsin Bureau on Aging) to develop statewide support materials, conduct trainings and provide technical assistance on issues of Medicare, Medical Assistance and private insurance for the benefit specialists, general aging network and the public; Planning for Future Health Care Decisions Project (with funds from the Evjue Foundation of Madison and the Retirement Research Foundation of Illinois) worked with the Wisconsin Retired Educators Association to train older volunteers to give presentations and provide counseling and assistance to other older individuals interested in completing a health care advance directive; Judicial Guardianship Support and Oversight Project (with funds from the State Justice Institute of Alexandria, Virginia) conducted data collection, education, publication development and improved court systems in the area of guardianship for the elderly; Volunteer Elder Abuse Prevention Money Management Project (with funds from New Ventures of Wisconsin) recruited, trained and supervised volunteers serving as representative payees for elders at risk of material elder abuse and self- neglect; Study and Recommendations for Milwaukee County's Protective Services System for Older Adults (with funds from the Helen Bader Foundation) conducted interviews and analysis and prepared extensive report for improvement of Milwaukee's Protective Services System; and Addressing the Court-Related Needs of the Elderly and People With Disabilities (with funds from the State Justice Institute) convened a multi-disciplinary committee and prepared extensive report for the Wisconsin Supreme Court with recommendations to improve Wisconsin court accessibility.
On an annual basis, these projects help thousands of elderly individuals in Wisconsin and throughout the nation, in securing their full entitlement to various public benefits, becoming better health insurance consumers, planning ahead for voluntary substitute health care and financial decision-making and through improvement in the long-term care system -- service setting options, the development of financing alternatives and the guardianship and protective services system.
The work of CWAG's Elder Law Center has gained it a national reputation for individual representation, group advocacy and consumer education. Staff participate on state and local advisory panels, legislative committees and ad hoc work groups. Attorneys and paralegals are continually asked to serve as speakers and trainers at both state and national conferences, and the publications produced have been marketed and sold throughout the United States. These publications include the following: Finding and Keeping Volunteer Guardians, Teaching and Guiding Volunteer Guardians, Mastering the Medicare Maze; Senior Citizens and the Law; Advocacy for Senior Citizens Practice Manual, Planning Ahead for Future Health Care Decisions; Do-it- Yourself Petitioner's Guide to Guardianship and Protective Placement; The Good Guardian; Guardianships and Advance Planning Alternatives; Medical Assistance and Divestment; Financing Long-Term Care; A Family's Guide to Selecting, Financing and Asserting Rights in a Nursing Home; and others. Videotapes have been produced on numerous topics in Medicare (e.g., program overview, appeals, choosing a Medicare supplement insurance), financing long-term care, and a guardian's duties. Brochures have been produced on nursing home admission agreements, the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Law, financial management alternatives to avoid elder abuse and the Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Program and the Lien Law.
CWAG's Elder Law Center also conducts regular training programs for consumers and professionals. The Elder Law Center works with the State Bar of Wisconsin to provide over 500 attorneys with an overview and update on selected issues of elder law and programs conducted jointly with both the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Extension provide non-attorney professionals with similar information. The CWAG/ELC Training Center regularly conducts training on various topics including Guardianship, Protective Services, Public Benefits, etc. for non-attorneys.
Legal Representation Experience
CWAG's Elder Law Center staff has had extensive experience in providing centralized back-up and support to county-based benefit specialists. Originally conceptualized and developed by the Center for Public Representation, CWAG's Elder Law Center staff have been providing back-up, training, support and supervision to benefit specialists in the Age Advantage area since 1978, to the Northern Area Agency on Aging since 1987, since April, 1994, to 12 of the counties of the Western Area Agency on Aging and 15 counties of Bay Area Agency on Aging since January of 1996. Throughout these 19 years, the staff have been involved in: assisting in recruiting benefit specialists; providing initial trainings to newly hired benefit specialists; preparing and conducting monthly updating sessions for the benefit specialists; conducting regular on-site reviews of the benefit specialists' casework; providing as-requested telephone back-up consultation and support; and assumption of benefit specialists' cases, where the situation so requires. Staff have also been involved in statewide trainings of benefit specialists, development of useful consumer and professional publications and training programs, assisting counties in benefit specialist selection, evaluation of benefit specialist performances, and other activities as requested. Finally, project staff have, over the years, been responsible for the production, revision and publication of the Advocacy for Senior Citizens Practice Manual, the major resource manual for all Wisconsin benefit specialists.
In addition to the legal back-up to the benefit specialists in the 58 counties of the Northern, Southern, Western and Bay Area Agencies on Aging districts, CWAG's Elder Law Center has also provided direct benefit specialist services to the older Dane County residents under a contract with the Dane County Human Services Department. In operation since 1982, Elder Law Center benefit specialists provide the same types of services for which the legal back-up contract requires attorney staff to provide support. Attorney supervision of these Dane County benefit specialists provides the attorney with a better understanding and close working knowledge of benefit specialist workload and activities.
Elder Law Center Volunteer Experience
The staff has had extensive experience recruiting, training and providing continuing legal back-up and training to volunteers as well. Beginning with the 19-year old legal assistance Benefit Specialist Program, which trains and provides legal back-up to county-based benefit specialists on questions of public benefits and health care financing, staff have assisted many counties in developing volunteer programs (generally involving volunteers over age 60 as well) to complement the benefit specialist programs. Specifically, using funds awarded under continuing contracts from the Southern and Northern District Area Agencies on Aging, staff have provided the following assistance to the aging units in the counties of Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Grant, Jefferson and Iowa:
- development of relevant volunteer "job description";
- suggestions for volunteer recruitment techniques;
- selection of the volunteers;
- training of the volunteers -- relevant
substantive law, advocacy skills, file maintenance, confidentiality
requirements, reporting responsibilities, etc.;
- on-going training needs; and
- legal back-up as requested.
Staff attorneys developed a handbook for county use in developing and maintaining volunteer programs and continue to work with these "volunteer benefit specialists."
From November, 1984 through December, 1992 the staff was under contract with the American Association of Retired Persons (A.A.R.P.) to provide the initial training and assist in on-going program development of A.A.R.P.'s highly successful "Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Project" (MMAPs), which are locally-based peer volunteer counseling projects on issues of Medicare, Medicaid and insurance. The primary responsibility was training the volunteers, through the conducting of approximately 24 three-day training sessions per year, held in over 35 states, for groups of 20-50 volunteers in both the substantive laws of Medicare, Medicaid and Medigap insurance, as well as counseling techniques, advocacy strategies, confidentiality, record-keeping and resource and referral techniques. In addition, staff prepared a quarterly newsletter for the volunteers and has assisted A.A.R.P. in: developing position descriptions and volunteer commitment forms; assessing volunteer readiness; evaluating programs; developing pre- and post-training supplemental video training modules; suggesting follow-up activities; development of promotional materials and assisting in coordinating referral lists.
For the last five years, staff has also served as liaison, on-going trainer, and back-up to the Dane County-based Medicare-Medicaid Assistance Project volunteer program, by developing for the volunteers quarterly training programs, case assignment, case management, back-up and volunteer management.
From 1990 through 1992, staff was also actively involved in recruiting, training and providing on-going assistance and monitoring to volunteers in its Planning for Future Health Care Decisions project. These projects were funded by the McBeath Foundation of Milwaukee and the Retirement Research Foundation of Illinois. For these projects, staff recruited and trained peer (i.e., older) volunteers to learn the substantive law regarding substitute health care decision-making in Wisconsin, presentation techniques in giving speeches to groups of older individuals on this topic, counseling, techniques, file maintenance, record-keeping and confidentiality in actually completing health care advance directives (e.g., living wills and powers of attorney for health care). These approximately 80 volunteers, under continuing supervision of Elder Law Center staff, gave presentations to hundreds of groups of older individuals (over 4,000 people) and actually assisted over 1,000 individuals in completing and signing an advance directive. Volunteer pro bono lawyers in the respective communities have now been recruited and trained to assume the on-going supervision and back-up to the volunteers.
Coordination With The Aging Network
CWAG staff works closely with other agencies in Wisconsin's aging network, as well as other groups nationwide. For example, the Coalition organizes, staffs and leads a monthly Legislative Caucus, comprised of representatives from major facets of the aging network (area agencies on aging, county aging units, benefit specialists, nutrition programs, elder abuse agencies, ombudsman's office, senior centers, advocates, etc.), which discusses legislative proposals and strategies and then assigns follow-up tasks to represent the elderly's interests in the Wisconsin legislature and administrative agencies. The Coalition also publishes a quarterly newsletter, The CWAG Advocate, distributed to thousands of elderly individuals and group representatives, providing information of importance to Wisconsin's seniors. Similarly, the Coalition publishes and distributes thousands of its Legislative Update to individuals and groups involved in the aging network in Wisconsin, with information about latest developments in the Legislature and urging actions necessary to best promote and protect elderly individuals' rights. In addition, the Coalition originally developed and continues to staff the PartnerCare program, a voluntary Medicare assignment program jointly sponsored by the State Medical Society and the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. This program provides access to doctors willing to accept Medicare assignment for low-income seniors throughout the state.
Staff regularly provide training programs and in-services (as well as occasional case consultation) to ombudsmen staff of the Board on Aging and Long-Term care, county elder abuse staff, county and state COP and long-term support staff, and protective services and court staff.
Last updated: August 20, 1997
By: Gail Schwersenska