The Client’s Desire to Age in Place: Our Role as Elder Law Attorneys

Abstract:     
The phrase “aging in place” is not just an idiosyncratic choice, not just an ideal that must give way to “practical” realities. For staying “in place” is for most elderly not a luxury, not a mere preference, but a silent cry to be recognized as a person. For too many elderly, to be asked or forced to move is not just an inconvenience or an unfortunate event; it is the first large step towards oblivion. Conversely, to “age in place” or just to “stay put” continues the arc of life, which although drawing to end, is not yet completed. A move to a nursing home is the loss of those little freedoms such as when and what to eat, that so erode personal autonomy that make the nursing home seen as the waiting room of death. Conversely, to stay “at home” means that life continues no matter how diminished or reduced in scope.

Thus it is that helping clients to age in place must be an essential aspect of elder law planning. For if our legal advice does not support, encourage and ultimately succeed in enabling the client to age in place, or in the vernacular, to stay put, then our planning has fallen short. While we may not have failed our client, we have done less than our best.

Keywords: aging in place, elderly, elderly client, nursing home, assisted living community, sense of self, identity, elder law planning, legal responsibility, elder law attorneys, ageism

Accepted Paper Series