Fights can rend families when a parent is incapacitated.
Mediation turns them back to what's best for a loved one. A frail older woman, whose competence to manage her own affairs is slipping, is surrounded by her adult children plus a phalanx of attorneys, all squabbling over what's best for Mother. Assigning legal guardians for aging or disabled adults is an ordeal for everyone, including the judge who is forced to make a Solomonic decision. While many families make decisions about caring for parents and disabled siblings without attorneys or judges, those who do use outside help are increasingly turning to mediation instead of the court system. By sitting down with a mediator instead of a judge, families are reconciling disputes through a process that makes all of them participants in the outcome.