LAW & GOVERNMENT:

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

• Dickinson School of Law - Penn State -- Elder Law Clinic Resources:

• Elder Law Bibliography
• Federal Governmental Agencies
  
• Pennsylvania Governmental Agencies
  

• Law and Aging Guide for Pennsylvania:

  • Synopsis: The Law and Aging Guide is a comprehensive listing of the state-wide resources available to help older persons with law-related issues. Published by the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging, the Guide includes important contact numbers and addresses for legal assistance providers and other law-related services for the elderly.

• Law for Seniors:

• Type: A "senior issues" web portal in Arizona that is a program of the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education with support from the Arizona Supreme Court and State Bar of Arizona.

• Topics: Care Management; Caregivers; Consumer Scams; Death of Relative; Debt Management; Divorce & Remarriage; Elder Abuse; Finances; Health Care; Living Choices; Personal Planning; Public Assistance; Senior Resources/Links; & Working.

• National Association of Area Agencies on Aging

• National Association of State Units on Aging

• National Elder Law Network:

  • Purpose: Since 1995, the NELN has been a source of dependable information on legal issues for seniors, their families, & advocates.
  • Topics: Abuse and Neglect of Elders; Advanced Directives / Living Wills; Alzheimers; Care Givers and Care Giving; Consumer Rights and Issues; Cultural Issues; Disability Issues; Discrimination; Dispute Resolution; Driving and Drivers Licenses; Elder Law Practice; Employment; Estates - Planning and Wills; Ethical Issues; Fraud; Funerals; Grandparents; Guardianship / Conservatorship; Health Care; Housing; Insurance; Medicaid; Medicare; Mental Health; Nursing Homes; Organ / Body Donation; Pets; Physician-Assisted Suicide; Prisoners; Retirement; Social Security and SSI; Substance Abuse; Taxation; Trusts; Veterans Benefits.

• National Guardianship Association, Inc.:

• Mission: "[P]rovide educational training and networking opportunities for guardians and about guardianship; to promote highest levels of values, standards and ethics; and to ensure a nationally recognized standard of excellence."
• Resources: General explanations, policies, references, & ethical statements about guardianship, including:

• Guardianship/Conservationship -- An Overview
  
• Rights of An Individual Under Guardianship
• The Guardian and Informed Consent
• The Guardian as Surrogate Decision-Maker
• Guardianship & Developmentally disabled Individuals
• Assisting the Guardian in Selecting a Nursing Facility

• National Senior Citizen Law Center

• Newsweek:

• "Patients have a right to make their own medical decisions", by Jane Bryant Quinn (06/25/07).
• Excerpt: There's more reason than ever to leave written instructions about the medical care you want if you're unable to speak for yourself. In the wake of the Terri Schiavo case, in which her husband and parents fought over whether to remove her feeding tubes, right-to-life activists have been working on state legislatures. Their objective: requiring doctors and families to keep life support going for patients in a permanently comatose state. If that's not what you want, you need to make it clear.

• President's Council on Bioethics:

• "Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in our Aging Society" , (Sepember, 2005).
• Report:
• Full Document (PDF)
• Full Document (HTML)
• Topics:
  
• Chapter 1: Dilemmas of an Aging Society
• Chapter 2: The Limited Wisdom of Advance Directives
• Chapter 3: The Ethics of Caregiving: General Principles
• Chapter 4: Ethical Caregiving: Principle and Prudence in Hard Cases
• Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations
• Article: "Lingering Longer: Who Will Care?", by Leon R. Kass, in the Washington Post (09/29/2005).
• "After the Life Cycle: The Moral Challenges of Later Life" , by Thomas Cole (June, 2004).
• "Caregiving and the American Individual", by Peter Lawler (September, 2004).
  
• "Treatment Decisions for Dementia Patients: The Search for Normative Boundaries", by Rebecca Dresser (December, 2004).
  
• "When Persons with Dementia Get Sick: The Care-Giver's Dilemma", by Eric Cohen (September, 2004).

• U.S. Administration on Aging