Group wants justice for area seniors

As the baby boomers speed toward retirement, are there enough systems in place to care for low-income elderly?
Claire Curry, legal director of the Civil Advocacy Program at the local Legal Aid Justice Center, doesn’t think so.

“This is not one of those hurricane watch situations,” Curry said. “The tsunami of aging is coming, and we are not ready for it.”
About 30 area residents got a brief education on the center’s Elder Law Initiative on Wednesday during the Java for Justice Series.
Every weekday this week between noon and 1 p.m., center staff are talking about the group’s programs. The sessions are free and open to the public.
During Wednesday’s session, Curry and the center’s managing lawyer, Kathleen Caldwell, discussed the state of nursing homes and some of what the Elder Law Initiative is doing to change the tide.

Overall, Curry said, the laws governing nursing homes are “fabulous,” but there is insufficient enforcement of those laws, and legislation keeps popping up to reduce the rights of nursing-home residents.
The issue is exacerbated by the number of people who need nursing-home care. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2004 National Nursing Home Survey, the United States has 16,100 nursing homes with 1.7 million beds. At the time of the survey, 1.5 million people were in nursing homes and the average length of stay was a little more than two years.

This year, the initiative also is focusing on “Better Jobs, Better Care,” a program meant to stabilize the workforce within nursing homes. The focus also is on family councils, which are made up of family members who work with nursing-home administrators to improve conditions affecting their loved ones.
Although the councils can make changes, they are not untouchable. Curry recalled a family council in Louisa that was the target of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation from the company that owned the nursing home.
However, the initiative deals in more than nursing-home issues. Caldwell works with the Elder Law Clinic, a group of seven second-year and third-year University of Virginia law students who work on cases involving low-income elderly people. Clinic duties include estate planning and Medicaid and Medicare-related issues.

“The goal is to encourage clients to preserve their independence and autonomy,” Caldwell said.
Today’s Java for Justice Series talk will be led by lawyers with the Immigrant Advocacy Program and the Pro-Bono Immigration Project. The center is located at 1000 Preston Ave.

For more information, call 977-0553.