Skip Navigation

Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

Elder Care Mediation

Faculty: Zena Zumeta and Susan Butterwick                                                   

This training focuses on adult guardianship and family caregiver mediation. Learn the differences between other types of mediation and elder mediation. In this training, we will focus on the mediator's responsibility toward inclusion of the older person's voice in the mediation and techniques for working in multiparty family mediations. At the conclusion of the training, you will be prepared to organize and perform elder mediations. This training is meant as an advanced training for those who have already taken basic mediation training, and an introduction to elder mediation for those who have not.

What you will learn:

  • Differences between elder mediation and other types of mediation
  • Guardianship/conservatorship law and practice
  • Capacity and disability issues
  • Red flags for elder abuse
  • Confidentiality issues
  • Multiparty mediation and family dynamics
  • Deciding who should be present at the mediation
  • Working with attorneys, court representatives, GAL's (guardian ad litems) and institutional representatives
  • Role of community resources, support persons, advocates, and surrogates in mediation
  • Ethical standards for elder mediators
  • Mental and physical effects of aging, disabilities, and accommodation in mediation
  • Societal and participant bias, family and cultural attitudes, and their impact on the mediation process
  • Pre-mediation interviews and screening for appropriateness of mediation
  • Marketing an elder mediation practice

Zena Zumeta, is internationally known as both a mediator and trainer of mediators. She is president of the Mediation Training and Consultation Institute, Zena Zumeta Mediation Services, and The Collaborative Workplace in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. Zumeta is a former board member and president of the Academy of Family Mediators (now merged into the Association for Conflict Resolution), past president of the Michigan Council for Family and Divorce Mediation, and past regional vice president of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution. Zumeta is the recipient of the Family Mediation Council-Michigan Lifetime Achievement in Mediation Award; the National Education Association/Saturn Corporation Award for Union-Management Collaboration; the John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award from ACR; and the Kumba Award from the National Conference on Minorities in ADR.

Susan Butterwick, provides training in adult guardianship/probate and caregiver mediation nationally for community centers, court programs, and other organizations. She served as directing attorney for a national demonstration project on adult guardianship and caregiver mediation and coauthored an evaluation of adult guardianship mediation in four states. Susan is a coauthor of the Association for Conflict Resolution's (ACR) elder mediation training objectives. She is a Michigan State Court Administrative Office-approved trainer for civil court mediation and provides advanced trainings in child welfare mediation and family mediation. She is adjunct professor of law at the Wayne State University Law School, Wayne State's Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution program, and the University of Detroit Mercy Law School, where she teaches civil mediation.