As our population ages, many families are faced with the daunting and overwhelming task of caring for aging parent(s). Family relationships are sometimes complicated and less than ideal. Siblings may have old wounds/hurts from the past that can surface when trying to work together around the issues of elder care. Did Mom favor one sibling over the other? Did Dad give one sibling more privileges than the other? Is one sibling taking care of the parent because the other siblings live too far away or just don’t care?

These kinds of issues create anger and resentment between siblings that often tears a family apart. In the middle of this strife and conflict is the aging parent who just wants to see her/his children get along. Families in this kind of distress need the help of a professional mediator who can be neutral and impartial. The mediator guides the siblings and the parents in an effort to re-open the lines of communication and bring healing. Each sibling is able to bring his/her concerns to the table and be heard in a way that may have never happened before. When the siblings hear each other’s perspectives and voice their concerns, family relationships can be mended and saved. A new understanding comes about from talking through the issues. Siblings are often able to forge a new alliance and plan for the care of their aging parents.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Elder Mediation, Mediation Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.