The Center for Elder Law & Justice is growing, due in large part to trends brought on by the pandemic.
In 2020, the nonprofit law firm fielded 10 times the number of phone calls typically received. Most were about health care or housing such as Medicaid benefits, scams, elder abuse or domestic violence.
“It’s no secret that Covid hit older adults pretty hard,” CEO Karen Nicolson said.
That’s why MedLaw, the organization’s medical-legal partnership, grew.
“We partner with various hospitals locally, and they pay us to be imbedded on site and provide services to their patients,” Nicolson said.
The program started before the pandemic, but as hospitalizations grew, the need for legal help also increased.
“The discussion of social determinants of health started prior to Covid,” Nicolson said. “If you’re not dealing holistically with the patient’s other issues, that person probably won’t get better. I think Covid just really shined a light on those health inequities and a lot of movement has happened around that.”
The MedLaw program, she said, saves hospitals money because the legal teams help people get medical coverage for bills and safe discharge plans so they’re not rehospitalized. The program recently was adopted at John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital.
“Even though we focus on older adults, they liked the model that we had, so they asked us to bring that to children’s hospital,” Nicolson said. “It really is a win for the hospitals and the patients.”
There are other growth areas for the nonprofit:
- The Center’s Senior Legal Advice Helpline, which is manned by volunteers and staff, was getting such an influx of calls in 2020 that it became a statewide service, not just Western New York.
“Particularly for older adults who are not as tech-savvy, they didn’t want to go to the websites or do virtual meetings,” Nicolson said. “They liked just having a phone number to call.” - A federal grants helped to form a partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association to provide legal services to families with loved one suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Another federal grant, the Abuse in Later Life Grant, will provide legal service in Niagara County to elder victims of domestic violence. - A program with Lifespan in Rochester will helps older people navigate bills and budgeting. The Center will pilot the program in Erie and Niagara counties.
“We’re hoping that if we can help people with their bill-paying, we can help them avoid scams and help them stay out of guardianship,” Nicolson said. “What’s really frustrating for our staff is the prevalence of these consumer scams targeting older adults. It’s a constant vigilance to keep up with them.” - To accommodate growth, the Center expects to add seven more employees to its staff of 70, in a variety of practice areas such as MedLaw, family court and health care.
“It’s challenging as a nonprofit, because you’re asking people to do a very difficult job,” Nicolson said. “Our clients are sick, they’re older, they’re in poverty, and we’re paying a nonprofit salary. It makes us focus on finding the right people who really want to do mission-driven work. And they’re out there, we just have to be creative in finding them.”
Center for Elder Law & Justice in Buffalo see growth - Buffalo Business First (bizjournals.com)