Displaying items by tag: Fellows

Catheryn Koss, a former Center on Law & Aging fellow and research coordinator, who is now a gerontology professor at California State in Sacramento, worked on a resource directory last year that is now available at this link: https://www.sacagingresources.org/resources-directory. Catheryn worked with a group of students to create the directory which, in addition to usual resource directory topics, includes pages on Pets, Employment, Disaster Preparedness, and Mental Health. The plan in coming months is to add more pages and to translate the site into Spanish. 

Aditi Shah, a 2021-2022 Borchard Fellow in Law and Aging hosted by the ACLU National Prison Project, has written another blog post on access to legal counsel issues faced  by ICE detainees. In her posting, she addresses the impact of denial of counsel on older adults in immigration detention. She notes: 

The barriers to access to counsel in ICE detention facilities disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. Older adults (age 55+) in immigration detention are especially vulnerable to abuse and are more likely to have serious medical needs, and as a result, would especially benefit from legal advocacy. For example, in the past two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults in immigration detention have been among the most likely individuals for whom immigration detention was especially dangerous, and potentially a death sentence. Nineteen of the 41 people (approximately 46 percent) who have died in ICE custody since fiscal year 2018 were over the age of 50, a stark reminder of the vulnerability of older adults in detention.

Valencia Sherman-Greenup, a 2021-2022 Borchard Fellow in Law and Aging hosted by Justice in Aging, was one of the authors of a recently published issue brief. This Justice in Aging Issue Brief, Building an Equitable Medicaid HCBS Infrastructure in New Jersey for Older Adults, supports New Jersey policymakers, state staff, HCBS providers, and aging and disability advocates in developing an equitable Medicaid HCBS infrastructure. The paper provides a brief overview of New Jersey’s Medicaid HCBS infrastructure for older adults, identifies where there are opportunities to advance equity in the HCBS infrastructure, and recommends policy solutions leveraging those opportunities to build an equitable HCBS infrastructure.

Aditi Shah, a 2021-2022 Borchard Fellow working with the ACLU National Prison Project on issues concerning older immigrant detainees, was one of the authors of the recently published research report on barriers to access to counsel in ICE detention facilities. The report is available here: 

https://www.aclu.org/report/no-fighting-chance?redirect=nofightingchance.

Aditi was interviewed in a USA Today article covering the report, found here: 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/09/legal-rights-migrants-ice-detention-limited-tech-woes/7538769001/. 

Former Borchard Fellow Chris Phillips was one of the presenters on a January 19, 2022 NCLER webinar on Patching the Safety Net: Survivor's Benefits for LGBTQ Older Adults. Chris is a staff attorney at the Center for Elder Law & Justice in Buffalo, New York. 

This information about the webinar was posted by NCLER:

For many LGBTQ older adults, the promise of marriage equality came too late. Having spent most of their adult lives excluded from the protections that marriage brings, many surviving same-sex partners and spouses had no access to one of the critical supports their different-sex counterparts could rely upon as they age: Social Security survivor’s benefits. Whether they were barred from marriage throughout their committed relationships or they were finally able to marry, only to lose their beloveds less than nine months later, these survivors continued to feel the sting of discrimination even after marriage exclusions were struck down by the courts. 

Two recent court cases have remedied this problem, and now the Social Security Administration can no longer deny survivor’s benefits to those same-sex survivors who could not previously meet the marriage-related requirements as a result of discriminatory laws.

This training will cover information about these cases and the actionable strategies that advocates can use to reach and support LGBTQ older adults as they navigate the process of seeking these benefits after a lifetime of discrimination.

Former Borchard Fellow Peter Travitsky is the Chair of the New York City Bar Association's Legal Problems of the Aging Committee.  His term runs from fall 2020 through spring 2023.  He previously served as Committee Secretary from fall 2017 through spring 2020.  The Committee regularly comments on legislative changes of interest to older New Yorkers including New York's recent amendments to its Power of Attorney law, and proposed cutbacks and expansions of the NYS Medicaid program.  The Committee organizes CLEs on topics related to law and aging, including healthcare, long term care, retirement planning, guardianship, and end of life planning.  As Chair, Peter also invites various speakers to talk to the Committee about issues to enrich the practice of law and aging.  Recent guest speakers have included end of life doulas, mediators, geriatric care managers, home visiting doctors, ombudsman, and resources for elder abuse response.  

To see a list of the reports the committee has issued  go to the committee page and click "reports" (NOT "view all committee reports"):   https://www.nycbar.org/member-and-career-services/committees/legal-problems-of-the-aging-committee. 

Two two-years fellowships in law and aging are available for 2022-2024. The online application is available between March 1, 2022 and April 1, 2022. Interested applicants should submit the required online application by April 1, 2022. See our web page on the fellowships and our online application. 

Former Borchard Fellow Catherine Bourque has published an article examining changes to state voting laws. Her article, Updates to State Voting Laws for Individuals with Limited Capacity, appears in the January-February 2022 issue of BIFOCAL, the publication of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging.

Aditi Shah, a 2021-2022 Borchard Fellow working with the ACLU National Prison Project on detention of older immigrants, was one of the authors of a recent blog on ICE's detention oversight. The blog argues that current oversight is not sufficient or transparent and calls for an end to ICE's mass immigration detention machine.

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging was once again this year a sponsor of the annual National Aging & Law Conference. The conference was held virtually again this year due to Covid concerns but was a success. The current Borchard fellows and several former fellows attended. Former fellow Catheryn Koss presented on the work of the Center on Law & Aging. Further information about 2021 NALC can be found here.