Alzheimer's Association of Minnesota-North Dakota

The Alzheimer's Association (Minnesota-North Dakota Chapter) is a non-profit organization that has been in existence for about twenty-eight years. Its hope is a world without Alzheimer's and its mission is "[t]o empower and equip persons and communities affected by Alzheimer's disease and related disorders with expert information and resources, compassionate guidance and effective education that improves lives." This organization provides resources, support, services, programs and educational opportunities to over 110,000 people with Alzheimer;s in the Minnesota-North Dakota area as well as to the people who love and care for them. During Spring Semester of 2008, two students (Janelle Januschka-Schrupp and Letty Van Ert) from William Mitchell College of Law had externships with the Alzheimer's Association. Letty worked on two projects. The first project involved a family caregiver support bill that has been and is currently being presented to the Minnesota legislature during its 2008 session. The bill would expand current statutes from allowing parents to use paid time off for the care of a sick or disabled child, to allowing workers to use paid time off to care for a sick or disabled elderly relative. Letty conducted research for purposes of advancing these bills, as well as attended meetings with key players in the Minnesota legislature. The second project was a combined effort from both Letty and Janelle. Together, these students wrote consumer tip sheets in plain language for purposes of assisting consumers and those not versed in legal language in understanding the laws and other resources relating to dementia. Janelle's project involved working on Minnesota's dementia training laws. The current law requires the employees of nursing facilities, in home care workers, and housing with services to be trained on how to work with Alzheimer’s patients. The Alzheimer's Association worked along with the Minnesota Department of Health, the United Steelworkers Association, and a state representative to determine if the law needs to be changed, and if so, what changes need to be made to ensure that it is being properly enforced.

Assisted Living Consumer Alliance

The Assisted Living Consumer Alliance (ALCA) is a national collaboration of groups and individuals who have joined together to promote and preserve choice, safety, and legal rights and protections for assisted living consumers. ALCA members serve as a resource for information and advocacy, and work collaboratively with consumers, health care professionals, and others to examine assisted living policies and to engage stakeholders and policymakers on important assisted living issues. Timothy Ward is helping ALCA by ensuring the accuracy of the state-by-state summaries on assisted living laws, helping to write consumer materials, updating and adding information to the website as needed, and soliciting members for information about assisted living by creating and managing email lists.

ElderCare Rights Alliance

The ElderCare Rights Alliance (ECRA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for seniors and people with disabilities that receive long-term care, giving a voice to those who need help or may not be able to speak on their own behalf. ECRA serves many roles: coaching the elderly and victims of abuse or exploitation into reclaiming their dignity, advocating on behalf of clients with various third parties, providing victims with useful resources, referring clients to outside agencies when necessary, assisiting clients in contacting programs and organizations that can provide needed services, educating care recipients and care providers on new and important concerns, and working with various organizations to help enact legislative change. Alicia Jaworski and Kevin Hansen have been working with ECRA on proposals for the coming 2009 legislative session for revisions, omissions, and modifications regarding the Vulnerable Adult Act in Minnesota. Alicia and Kevin have developed a Wiki website (to provide information for the groups participating in the Stakeholder Large Group), organized information developed in meetings into a spreadsheet for subcommittee work to parse and suggest revisions, performed legal research and background information research to provide the Stakeholder group with information to proceed with, and coordinated meetings for the various subcommittee meetings and large group meetings. The end goal is to have the information and revisions developed in the subcommittee and large group meetings formed into a working report to present to the legislature for consideration before the 2009 legislative session begins in February.

Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis - Housing Discrimination Law Project

In existence since 1913, Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis has a long history of helping low income families and individuals by providing legal assistance. The attorneys working with Legal Aid handle issues of housing, public benefits, family law and disability among others. By virtue of their expertise on legal issues affecting those who live with poverty, attorneys with Legal Aid are resources for the legislature and state agencies. The focus of this project is disability-based discrimination against people 55 years of age and older. Illegal housing discrimination includes: application denials due to disability, inappropriate disability-related questioning as part of the application process, disability-related evictions, discrimination in the "terms and conditions" of the rental agreement, and refusal to make reasonable accommodations. These practices are often illegal in housing frequented by seniors, such as seniors' independent living complexes, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes. As part of the Housing Discrimination Law Project, the goals are to research the law and create online fact sheets and other written work, work on client cases, and help educate tenants, landlords and advocates about the housing rights of disabled older people. In the spring semester of 2008, Allison Crandall, a 2L Student at William Mitchell, worked with Legal Aid on housing discrimination. In working on the issue of housing discrimination, she wrote on the applicability of the Fair Housing Act to nursing homes and also on the differences between the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act for the purposes of applying public accommodations to assisted living facilities. She also had the opportunity to work on client files, assisting in redressing discrimination based on disability in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. She was able to conduct interviews and solicit letters on behalf of clients, as well as doing research on applicable case law.

Lutheran Social Services/Grandfamily Connection: Access to the Courts

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSS) is the largest statewide social service nonprofit in Minnesota with over 2,100 employees serving 300 communities statewide. LSS traces its roots to 1865 when a small congregation took in orphaned children who needed care and protection; our foundation was dedicated to the concern of caring for at-risk children and that legacy lives on today. LSS is widely respected for the quality and administration of its services and has one or more contracts with all of Minnesota’s 87 counties. LSS provides care that reflects compassion, integrity, and respect for all individuals and cultures regardless of race, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, or religion. LSS is accredited through the National Council on Accreditation and meets or exceeds state requirements for professional licensure and delivery of services. LSS's experience with providing support services to grandparents and other relative caregivers dates back to 1991 when program founder, Connie Booth- a therapist for older persons in the mental health department at LSS- received requests for a support group for grandparents who were raising their grandchildren full-time.  The service grew into an independent program over the course of several years, expanding from one support group to multiple support groups throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area.  In 1996, Connie Booth joined with 2 other service providers and 2 grandmothers who were raising grandchildren and incorporated Minnesota Kinship Caregivers Association to address the larger systemic obstacles and challenges grandfamilies face. In 2008, LSS continues to contribute significantly to Minnesota Kinship Caregivers Association’s success through service on the board of directors and committing significant staff time to MKCA’s work. New program components have been developed over time in response to caregiver suggestions and staff’s increasing familiarity with the challenges grandfamilies face.  These include quarterly family recreational events:  an annual picnic; parties; and a camp weekend for grandfamilies that helps build a positive foundation for newly formed families and often becomes a family tradition.  Program developments include educational seminars on the legal options available to grandparent caregivers, mental health topics, and other unique topics such as how to communicate with children about an incarcerated parent in a way that protects the children’s self-identity.  Melissa Hunt has been working with LSS to provide more grandparent caregivers access to the courts.  Currently, in Minnesota, only Hennepin County has approved a third party petition for custody which is a necessary document in a custody proceeding.  This means that grandparent caregivers in other counties must hire an attorney to create a third party petition for custody for them.  This is an expensive process because not many attorneys are familiar the process of creating a third party custody petition nor are they familiar with the court process involved with custody petitions.  Melissa created a third party petition for custody which she is going to try to have approved by the courts in Ramsey, Rice, Dakota, Washington, Anoka, and Carver Counties.  It is LSS's goal to have the court forms approved throughout the entire state.  Having these forms approved by courts means that people will have access to these forms and be able to fill them out by themselves, without hiring an attorney.  This allows a person to appear pro se.  This will also make it easier and cheaper if a grandparent wants to hire an attorney because the attorney will be able to use the court approved third party petition for custody forms.

Minnesota Kinship Caregivers Association: Public Policy and Legislation

Minnesota Kinship Caregivers Association (MKCA) is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization that advocates for, supports, and provides information and resources to people raising their grandchildren or children of other kin. Mathea Bulander and Joel Button have been involved in drafting legislative language, preparing organization financial justification for such legislation, and researching on and advising MKCA about lobbying restrictions as a non-profit group. Mathea and Joel are also working to research and compile kinship caregiver legislation from other states.

National Center for Lesbian Rights: Elder Law Project

Founded in 1977, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. NCLR’s Elder Law Project advocates for policies and legislation to protect the medical and financial rights of LGBT elders, and educates the professionals who are charged with assisting them. William Mitchell 3L student Nicole Wood is collaborating with NCLR attorneys and staff members on an informational guide designed to: 1) identify shortcomings in current law or institutional practices that result in inequality for LGBT elders and 2) provide legal strategies and practical considerations to help LGBT elders overcome those obstacles, protect their rights, and achieve greater stability across the spectrum of estate and life planning. Upon its completion, the guide will be available on the NCLR Web site.

Volunteers of America of Minnesota

Volunteers of America of Minnesota is one of the largest affiliates of the over forty VOA offices in the United States and one of the oldest, largest and most comprehensive social service organizations in Minnesota. Every year VOA serves more than 27,000 children, adults, school students, senior citizens, homeless women and their children, adults with special needs, youth and adult ex-offenders through a wide variety of human service programs. VOA MN Senior Services Protective Services is available to provide consultation, information and referral, assessments, and when needed may initiate proceedings for adults who may be in need of guardian and/or conservator services. During the Spring Semester 2008, Andrea Palumbo, a William Mitchell student, working with VOA-MN, conducted preliminary research concerning adult orphans and unbefriended elders in Minnesota. Adult orphans are adults who have not executed an advance directive and do not have friends or family members involved in their medical care. A subset of this group, unbefriended elders, lack the capacity to execute an advance directive and make informed decisions about their medical care. The current mechanism for making health care decisions on behalf of adult orphans often produces poor outcomes and unnecessary costs for patients, friends, family, caregivers, health care systems, and the judicial system. Adult orphans and unbefriended elders may receive too much or too little medical care or medical care that is not in accordance with their values and beliefs. Beyond estimates, little is known about the size of the adult orphan population either in Minnesota or across the country. Andrea's project involves administering a state wide survey of nursing homes to identify adult orphans, evaluating recommendations from prior studies, and identifying one or more program models as a pilot project for health care decision making for adult orphans and unbefriended elders in Minnesota.