An ethical process for elder mediators : responding to questions that arise when there are vulnerable or incapable participants
department or school: Law, Peter A. Allard School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Braun, Joy Anne Fay
issued: 2015-11-05T03:34:37
issued: 2015
related degree: Master of Laws - LLM
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Elder mediation is a process for resolving conflicts between older adults and their families. Some scholars have argued that older adults may be disadvantaged in elder mediation. At particular risk are older adults who have diminished cognitive capacity or are victims of elder abuse. Older adults in those situations may bargain away their legal rights in mediation due to having less negotiating ability. In this thesis I examine this issue through a review of scholarly literature, laws and policies. I identify situations where vulnerable or incapable older adults may be harmed in mediation. I argue that elder mediators must choose an appropriate course of action in these situations to ensure that the older adult participant is not harmed. Many of these decisions have ethical considerations. I then examine existing ethical codes and demonstrate that these do not provide sufficient guidance to elder mediators in these situations. In order to fill this gap, I propose that elder mediators adopt an ethical decisionâmaking process. I argue that elder mediators can effectively use this ten-step process and demonstrate how to use it in practice by applying it to a typical elder mediation scenario.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/55139
note: AN ETHICAL PROCESS FOR ELDER MEDIATORS: RESPONDING TO QUESTIONS THAT ARISE WHEN THERE ARE VULNERABLE OR INCAPABLE PARTICIPANTS by Joy Anne Fay Braun A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LAWS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Law) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2015 © Joy Anne Fay Braun, 2015 ii Abstract Elder mediation is a process for resolving conflicts between older adults and their families. Some scholars have argued that older adults may be disadvantaged in elder mediation. At particular risk are older adults who have diminished cognitive capacity or are victims of elder abuse. Older adults in those situations may bargain away their legal rights in mediation due to having less negotiating ability. In this thesis I examine this issue through a review of scholarly literature, laws and policies. I identify situations where vulnerable or incapable older adults may be harmed in mediation. I argue that elder mediators must choose an appropriate course of action in these situations to ensure that the older adult participant is not harmed. Many of these decisions have ethical considerations. I then examine existing ethical codes and demonstrate that these do not provide sufficient guidance to elder mediators in these situations. In order to fill this gap, I propose that elder mediators adopt an ethical decisionâmaking process. I argue that elder mediators can effectively use this ten-step process and demonstrate how to use it in practice by applying it to a typical elder mediation scenario. iii Preface This research project included three different phases: 1) reviewing laws and literature relevant to elder mediation, 2) analyzing elder mediation ethical scenarios and applying provisions from existing mediator codes of conduct, and 3) demonstrating how an ethical decision-making process used by psychologists can assist elder mediators by informing the process of making ethic…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2015-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0216003
language: eng
degree discipline: Law
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/55139