Having worked in a hospital for more than 15 years, I am a clinician having a comprehensive knowledge of geriatric mental health, I provide assessment relevant to gerontology issues, interpersonal psychotherapy, and mediation to older adults and their caregivers.  My areas of expertise are:

Intergenerational Mediation and Geriatric counselling:

Intergenerational mediation is a specialised field of mediation that focuses on conflicts that arise in the context of aging. It encourages and promotes direct communication among the disputing parties and seeks to create an environment where all participants have an opportunity to speak and be heard and work together to resolve issues. It is a healthy way of preventing family tension, estrangement, or the need for litigation. 

Issues Commonly Mediated are:

• Any conflict that involves older people, their family members, or others in their lives, for example mediation between a resident or their family members and the long-term care facility or a retirement home.  It is a collaborative process, in which I help facilitate discussions that assists my clients in addressing the myriad of changes and stresses that often occur throughout their stay in an institutionalised setting environment. 
• Issues about estate, powers of attorneys, Substitute decision makers. The consent and capacity board and Public Guardian Trustee
• Financial issues, end of life planning and decision making, new marriages and step relative issues,
• Depending on the situation it is not uncommon to include paid caregivers, hospital staff, nursing home and or community care representatives, primary care physicians, and other professionals in my mediation with the client.

Geriatric Counselling:

Many older adults over 65 years of age experience grief and loss, whether it be in their occupation (e.g., retirement), partner unavailability, physical changes, chronic or recurrent mental health issues, end of life issues, death of a spouse or friends. The role of counselling is to assist people with acceptance, appreciate and accommodate to the changes of aging and help strengthen core beliefs just as people accommodate to other changes throughout the life span.

I conduct a thorough psychosocial assessment including suicide risk assessment, anxiety, therapeutic counselling in complex areas, such as life transactions, grief and loss, family stress, bereavement, and palliative care. 

I am trained in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCa) and also conduct Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) for people concerned about their memory problems, dementia and its progression.

Additionally, I provide consultation, education and support targeted at primary care givers, family members, utilizing a health promotion and illness prevention perspective. My initial assessments are comprehensive that can be shared with the primary physician after taking consent from your loved ones.

 

The Importance of Diversity Awareness in Mediation: 

As a mediator, I strive to explore and address cultural differences and take a global approach to resolve the issues through a more integrative manner. My experience has taught me that a person’s cultural background can be a strong and sometimes invisible factor that permeates the mediation process. It is important to address it effectively to communicate with the parties in mediation. For example, there are cultural difference in styles of communications, some being much more expressive or affective than others. I offer a safe environment to facilitate discussion between two parties to achieve a successful outcome.