When the Family Needs an Umpire

The home care aide didn’t expect her new charge to be particularly cantankerous. After all, she had worked for the elderly woman’s late sister for four years, and they’d gotten along well.

But the new relationship was rocky from the start. More than once the aide received confusing calls from the 88-year-old woman late at night. She traveled to the woman’s apartment on the Upper West Side, only to be met with a curt “What’s going on? Why are you here?” The older woman, bedridden and recovering from a broken hip, repeatedly told the caregiver to leave because she didn’t need help.

Frustrated and angry, the aide threatened to quit. That’s when the patient’s family called in Joy Rosenthal, an elder mediator.

Ms. Rosenthal and a co-mediator umpired the conflict at the older woman’s bedside. “She was just frustrated with her condition, angry about being so debilitated,” Ms. Rosenthal said. “She felt locked in and was taking it out on the caregiver.”

via When the Family Needs an Umpire - NYTimes.com.