A Therapeutic Approach

Legislative and regulatory bodies around the globe have enacted over time an extensive corpus of law intended to improve the well-being of older persons and the quality of their lives. These statutes, regulations, and executive orders, as well as evolving common law doctrines enunciated by the courts, provide special protections or create distinct rights or privileges solely or at least partially on the basis of chronological age. Frequently, the older intended beneficiaries must become personally involved – voluntarily or involuntarily – with attorneys and the legal system to take advantage of the laws intended to serve their interests. Advocates for the older population (see generally Symposium 2004) generally make an assumption about the positive therapeutic efficacy for older persons of these laws and involvement in the legal system, but we seldom actually carefully examine the validity of that assumption after a law has been in place for a while or the elder’s involvement in the legal process has taken place. Such careful examination – an assessment of the actual, rather than the theoretical, impact of the legal system on the older persons it is intended to serve, as well as their families and society as a whole – is the goal of the Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) concept.