Ethical Challenges in Client Counseling & Decision Making in Multidisciplinary Practices Serving Elders

Abstract

As the American population ages and the difficult economy requires cost-effective legal and medical services, medical-legal partnerships are becoming valuable resources for elderly individuals. These multidisciplinary practices can more effectively meet the varied and complex needs of the elderly, but they present a number of ethical challenges for the professions involved. This paper explores the particular ethical challenges in client counseling and decision making that lawyers and medical professionals face, highlighting the differences in ethical standards across professions. In exploring these differing obligations, this paper paves a path toward effective multidisciplinary practices that can provide the serves elderly individuals need while ensuring that the professionals involved maintain the ethical standards advanced by their industries.