Elder Law Of Michigan Inc

Programs: Provided economic security through michigan's coordinated access to food for the elderly (micafe), a public-benefits access project, in partnership with the michigan department of health and human services (dhhs), the aging and adult services agency (formerly the michigan office of services to the aging), and local community partners. The project, operating in 36 michigan counties, is designed to increase the participation of older adults in the food assistance program (widely known as the food stamp program or supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap)), medicaid and other services by making senior and community centers points of access for the program (rather than requiring seniors to go to a local dhs office). Micafe staff provide technical support and assistance to over 120 community partners who work with seniors to help them apply for the food assistance program. For 2017 fiscal year, micafe educated over 12,000 likely-eligible michigan seniors, screened over 1,500 of them for benefits, and helped 87% of them apply for snap benefits. Micafe also trained 140 people to be application assistants in their local community. Benefits enrollment and options center was originally started with funding from the national council on aging (ncoa) to establish a statewide project to provide screening to older adults who are struggling to make ends meet and interested in finding public benefits like medicaid, supplemental food assistance, medicare part d, and other programs that could reduce their costs or provide new benefits to ensure that their most basic needs are met. Services are provided over the telephone. Elm staff also assists clients screened eligible for key benefits with the application process. This program is a complementary service and is integrated with the micafe program and all legal services programs. In 2014, elm designated all programs at elder law to be parts of the benefits enrollment center because every client that receives assistance from elm is screened for key benefits.

provided legal services through the legal hotline for michigan seniors and the mid-america pension rights project. As one of the first and largest senior legal assistance programs, the legal hotline for michigan seniors provides basic, personal legal advice and information over the telephone to older adults in michigan. Since it began in 1990, the program solves problems for clients through customized interventions and client specific legal work. The program was created to respond to the "socially needy" by eliminating barriers such as geography, transportation, illness, poverty, and social isolation. The program serves approximately 5,000 people per year statewide. A main strength of the hotline is the ability to reach and serve people from all segments of the older adult population. Elm utilizes volunteer attorneys, recent law school graduates, and law students to not only assist more clients, but to also train members of the legal profession on the unique legal issues faced by low-income seniors. The mid-america pension rights project assists retirees of any age in recovering pension benefits and answering questions regarding pension plans and other retirement benefits. The project started as an arm of the legal hotline to serve michigan residents. It has grown into its own program that is a collaboration covering six states, with elm as the lead organization. This project has helped recover millions of dollars in pensions for beneficiaries. In 2017, the project worked with 813 pension clients to secure over $4. 4m in projected retirement benefits.

elder abuse prevention program - beginning in 2007, elm received grants from the department of justice's office of violence against women (ovw) to prevent, reduce, and respond to elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. Elm leads multi-disciplinary teams to train law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors, and non-profit organizations to 1) increase their ability to identify elder abuse and domestic violence; 2) foster relationships and collaboration among criminal justice and adult protective services professions; 3) identify practices and protocols to create a coordinated response to elder abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and domestic violence experienced by adults. In 2014, the ovw grant ended and elm was chosen as the lead organization for the state of michigan's elder abuse prevention efforts. In 2015, elm led the efforts to create the michigan elder justice coordinating council, a statewide collaborative that will focus on addressing the issues of elder abuse in michigan. Elm also designed and began testing an integrated screening and referral tool that would allow service providers to access information in real time about what services are available for their senior clients. In 2017, the council built on its partnerships with a national identity theft victims assistance network grant to help combat the problems of id theft among older adults. National legal resource center - elm's staff provide technical support for senior legal helplines and low-cost legal service delivery mechanisms as part of the u. S. Administration for community living's national legal resource center. Cera coordinates with four other national organizations in fostering the development and building of capacity among the professionals and nonprofits that serve the legal needs of older adults. Cera is dedicated to coordinating and expanding senior legal helplines with aging network services to protect the rights and improve the overall well-being of mature adults. Reverse mortgage counseling call center began operation at elm in february 2014 in response to a request from the national council on aging, which operates a network of reverse mortgage counselors and needed an entity to handle the incoming calls from seniors and to coordinate the scheduling for their mandatory counseling session. In 2017, the call center downsized due to changes in the counseling offered by ncoa, with the project ending in december 2017. Community resources helpline is a pilot program started in early 2016 in response to a need to connect vulnerable adults to much-needed community services. This projected three-year pilot is designed to gather data on the types of resources and information that are needed. In partnership with adult protective services, the community resources helpline is available to help persons who filed a report with aps but the case did not move forward. In spring of 2016, aps began putting information about the community resources helpline in the letters that they sent to these persons informing them that an investigation would not be opened. Approximately 40% of the over 40,000 calls to aps were rejected. This pilot project operated through 2017, but was closed at the end of 2017 when the data did not support continuing the service.