Legal Resources for the Elderly offers free legal advice for New Mexico Seniors; KC Counts speaks with the program's managing attorney, Natalie Meyers, about services offered by the program. Here is a portion of their conversation:
KC:
Tell me about this program and what you find among the greatest needs in our senior population.
Natalie:
Yes, so Legal Resources for the Elderly Program is a free, statewide legal helpline for New Mexico Seniors 55 and older.
KC:
Ouch.
Natalie:
[laughs] Our program, we provide a wide range of advice to seniors on civil legal topics. So, some of the very common topics that we advise on on the help line include things like estate planning, wills, powers of attorney; We also get a lot of calls regarding probate. We also get a a good number of calls in regards to landlord/tenant issues, and we also handle a fair number of consumer and finance issues, so not only dealing with consumer issues, but also debt problems that seniors may have as well.
KC:
I think so often we hear about people who pass away without their wishes being spelled out and maybe entering that end-of-life phase without their wishes really being known. And so, then we think about moving forward ourselves, and yeah, I can see exactly how that happens, because they haven't made any of those - I don't even think I've made the decisions yet Natalie, much less you know, getting the paperwork done. So when you talk to people, is there kind of, like a prioritized list that you recommend that people tackle one by one?
Natalie:
So, certainly when we talk to people about estate planning and planning for the future, there are some things that are good to have in place right away. So, to advise people regarding powers of attorney - so financial powers of attorney and your advanced healthcare directive, or your healthcare power of attorney, these are very important planning tools to ensure that if something happens to you and you're not able to make your own decisions, that someone can step into your shoes and make those decisions on your behalf. So that's a typical place where we start to talk about planning for the future. We also give a lot of advice in regards to estate planning. So, what happens after you pass? So we like to talk to people about what they have, who they want to leave it to, and how to accomplish those goals?
KC:
Tell me about how people can access help through legal resources for the elderly.
Natalie:
So our primary function is as a helpline, so they can reach our help-line and we have a toll- free number as well as a local number. And if they call up our intake, they'll complete a basic intake with our intake staff and then they'll be handed over to our attorneys who will get some information from the caller. And give them advice on their particular situation. I will also note our program in addition to the helpline, we also provide workshops throughout the state at senior centers. So if you visit our website, you can see where we're visiting in the future. We also provide a recurring monthly webinar on the Zoom platform. Where we present on these very topics, powers of attorney as state planning and Medicaid to help pay for long term care.
KC:
Do you address concerns regarding all of the myriad scams that are out there that are targeting our older population?
Natalie:
So we do give advice in regards to scam issues. We certainly see our fair share of those on the helpline and we're also able to advise people that may have unfortunately become a victim of one of those scams as to their steps for recovery.
KC:
So let's talk a little bit about the clinic that was held in in Las Cruces recently on power of attorney. You know, sometimes people have an obvious choice for power of attorney, a son or a daughter, a niece or a nephew. And sometimes those choices are a little bit tougher to make. What are some of the guidelines that you recommend to people think about when they're trying to choose someone to make those extremely important decisions for them?
Natalie:
Yes. So that's a great question. So of course we emphasize when you're thinking about an agent that you want to serve on your behalf, making sure that you name someone that you trust, this is someone who might be in charge of your finances or your medical or healthcare decision making. So of course, priority number one is naming someone that you trust, but we also tell people to consider naming someone who's going to be readily available, certainly, and naming an agent and another question we get is, you know, do I have to name a family member? And the answer is no. If you've got someone else that you really trust to step into that role, you can certainly name that person as well.
You can call the helpline for Legal Resources for the Elderly at 1-800-876-6657 or visit Legal Resources for the Elderly online.
