Why is The Elder Law Clinic at the WFU Baptist Medical Center?
Many of the legal issues of older adults relate to medical problems. Consider, for example, Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia: a person suffering from this may need a court appointed guardian. Many older people want to designate a relative to make medical decisions for them; Clinic students help them by drafting statutory health care powers of attorney. At the medical center, the Sticht Center on Aging was built to provide comprehensive services to older people. Law students are fortunate to have nationally recognized geriatricians teach the Clinic about mental capacity issues. A hospital chaplain and physician teach students about bioethics issues in end-of-life medical treatment. Clinic students tour the ICU (intensive care unit) or Hospice Home, with these experts. The exposure to medical information provides law students with a superior background for elder law cases. In addition, being a part of the medical center team allows the Elder Law Clinic to provide higher quality serv
