Changing health and mobility issues usually accompany people as they grow older. Depending on how you and our family handle these issues, it can be the difference between making life miserable, lonely, and worrisome, or safer and more comfortable.
It could be a senior’s physical, mental, or emotional health. New glasses? Hearing aids? Using a walker or cane? Someone may have noticed changes in eyesight, hearing, concern for some driving situations, general anxiety, ability to climb steps, or some memory loss.
Helping might mean taking someone shopping, visiting, and just spending time talking, or accompanying a parent, relative or friend to a medical appointment. Medical issues can be significant and often people may be unprepared, nervous or have difficulty trying to keep track of all the information.
Take someone along to ensure questions get asked and answered and written down for future reference–someone who can take notes and go over them with you. As people grow older it’s natural to experience more health and age-related issues.
And if this “caregiving” is adversely affecting your employment, we can help with that, too. Learn more
Our Elder Mediation experience can help you with conflicts. Listening and understanding really does work. See how we can help you and your family by providing a confidential, safe, and supportive family meeting to go over issues and concerns.
Let us help you find creative solutions. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Caregiving, and day-to-day routines, can become difficult and exhausting. Parents and grandparents often have difficulties asking for help, or they don’t want to burden anyone.
Family and friends may want to help but don’t want to intrude or feel uncomfortable talking about these subjects.
Our confidential family meetings can solve these problems. We organize support, bring people together to discuss worries, and create a proactive plan the family can agree on. We find ways to share the workload and make life easier for everyone.
Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
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Sometimes housing issues sneak up on us.
Might it be time to move? Giving up a home or a car can be difficult and disappointing. Maybe it’s necessary, maybe there’s another way? Are there ways to stay in the house and make it safer and more comfortable? There’s no need to go through this alone.
How about driving?
Maybe you no longer feel comfortable driving on freeways or at night? We need our cars so we can run errands, go to appointments, and visit friends. But do you feel safe?
We can hold a confidential family meeting for you. We find solutions that make growing older easier, safer, and more enjoyable.
Even if you’ve tried talking things out, and haven’t been successful, don’t give up. Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Have you made out a will? How about advanced directives – who will make decisions if for some reason you aren’t able to make them? Have you written out your end-of-life desires? Do family and friends know your wishes?
Our confidential family meetings support these discussions. Helping people understand topics and decisions makes the discussions easier, more productive, and more comfortable.
Once these documents and papers are completed, people are better able to move on with their lives knowing important decisions have been discussed and completed.
With respect and understanding our mediators help you focus on emotional and practical subjects that may be difficult for families to talk about. Understanding what you want, and how to get there, are topics we can work on with you. And if there’s any documents or papers that need an attorney, or other legal services, we’ll discuss that with you, too.
Be prepared before your family has problems or is in a crisis. Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Are you distracted at work while trying to care for someone? Maybe it’s a parent, an adult child, or another relative or a close friend?
You care about them, but if your employment or your own family suffers, you may need help.
No matter how good you are at multitasking, something is bound to suffer. No one can afford to jeopardize their employment, or their own family. Often the care of a family member falls disproportionately to one person. Is that you?
Family meetings find ways to distribute responsibilities and caregiving that you may not have thought of before. There’s no reason to try and go it alone. Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Different expectations often cause conflicts and difficulties among family members. It doesn’t have to be that way – for parents or the children, no matter what their ages are. Find a way to live peacefully and support each other.
Even before COVID, children were taking more time to leave the nest. And for a variety of reasons younger adults, in the 20s and 30s were moving back in with parents.
Older adults, maybe thinking about retirement, expect that once their children are grown, parent’s lives will change. There’s an expectation when children reach a certain age, they seek independence and leave the “nest”.
Today 20% of adult children are living with their parents or another older relative. Often conflicts arise, and people get upset. Young adults either don’t move out or return home for a variety of reasons.
Reasons vary, the more common ones include:
Sitting down with a neutral third party, a family mediator, helps guide the discussions, so people understand each other’s concerns. This allows for plans that benefit and satisfy everyone. Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Living with other people, whether family or not, may get difficult at times. You try to talk it out, but the conflicts continue. Family life, technology, and politics have changed the ways people communicate; often becoming combative.
Each generation may use different methods to communicate; this doesn’t lend itself to solving problems, or even discussing them. These all can lead to misunderstandings and then conflicts erupt.
When differences in personalities or opinions arise, communication and resolving conflicts peacefully often suffer.
Families have more distractions than ever before and are looking for a renewed and shared sense of connection. Conflicts and talking things over make these connections more difficult.
Here are some of the more typical distractions and generational distractions that we’ve noticed have changed in the last few decades. Do any of these fit your family?
Our family meetings break through these distractions and noise by bringing people together with a shared purpose to solve problems. Let us help you find solutions by listening and working together.
And it’s all confidential. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Many grandparents are now raising their grandchildren–more than you might expect. It can be exhausting and difficult.
For most grandparents visiting with their grandchildren is a wonderful part of family life. But when you’re in your 50s or 60s, or older, taking care of little children, or teens, 24/7 can be exhausting and frustrating. For some older grandparents it might even become a health issue.
Grandparents raising their grandchildren has been a rising trend for the past decade. For many, although they love their grandchildren, it is a tiring task. And the children are family, so grandparents pitch in when the grandchildren’s parents can’t.
Older adults have raised their own children and are often trying to enjoy their elder years. Homes may no longer easily accommodate additional people. Grandparents may need additional support themselves. Your family can come together for the safety and support of the children and relatives.
Discover how to strengthen the children’s lives, and your own. County social workers, or other social services can sometimes help. Other times social services aren’t available or involved. Our Family Group Decision Making meetings can help your family.
Contact us and let us help you find solutions. For a free consultation to discuss what’s going on give us a call.
Our meetings help equip teens and young adults with additional information, skills, support, and preparation for the future. Young adults tell us they feel listened to and have a chance to express their thoughts and fears in a safe and caring environment. Some of the topics we can cover include finances, employment, LGBTQ issues, housing, education, pregnancy, and remaining connected with family and supportive friends.
This isn’t therapy. These are family meetings. We’ve helped young men and women make a smoother transition from childhood problems and worries into adulthood.
Some are foster children, and some are still with their biological parent(s). They may have turned 18, 19 or 20 years old. Some might be older and returned back home.
What these young adults seem to have in common is that they haven’t learned enough to be successful on their own. They need more maturity and life experiences, while having the safety and security of people who love and care about them.
Young people want their freedom, but also express some concerns:
Transitional Family Meetings
We offer young adults transition conferences, or Transitional Family Meetings. The young adults choose who will attend their meeting.
Together with parents, friends, and other important, influential, and supportive people in their lives, young adults feel safer and encouraged to spread their wings and strike out on their own. They gain more confidence and independence.
Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s going on.
Today, school choices, technology, fewer teachers, and more distractions have made getting a useful education different than it was for previous generations. Truancy, homeschooling, parents working, and politics can also make learning more difficult.
And yet, the general ideas remain:
How do we help the next generations learn?
Today’s goals are the same as they’ve always been, find out who you are and what you enjoy doing. Become a good citizen of the world.
Times have changed. What seemed to work 50 or even 20 years ago may not be helpful today. The Internet and social media, uncovering hidden histories, differing cultural values, cell phones, addictions, and politics have changed education for many children and young adults. It truly takes a village to raise a caring and successful child.
We have experience working with families and children. Our family meetings bring a variety of people together including parents, teachers, social workers, and others to help you and your child be successful. Let us help you find solutions by contacting us for a free consultation to discuss what’s
going on.
