REGION — Angela Morgan, an attorney, has focused her fledgling career on nonprofits. To the benefit of Oxford County’s aging population, she has just joined Legal Services for the Elderly.

LSE provides persons age 60 and older with free legal advice regarding health care, health insurance, Medicare (including Part D), MaineCare (Medicaid), Social Security and other public benefits, pension and retirement benefits, power of attorney, consumer matters including creditor and bankruptcy problems, physical and financial abuse, guardianship defense and other issues.

Elderly is somewhat a misnomer. The agency provides free legals services for anyone after the age of 60. Not so elderly and the services are not so well known.

Currently LSE has 207 clients in Oxford County, and 74 between Paris, Oxford, Norway, Hebron, Buckfield, Sumner, Hartford, Otisfield, Waterford, Harrison, West Paris, Greenwood and Woodstrock.

“We have a Help Line and that is the first step,” she explains. “Call the help line and a paralegal will take your information and one of our two full-time attorneys (we call the Help Line Attorneys) will call you back within two days. They answer all sorts of questions.”

These attorneys, she says, have a broad range of knowledge and can advise on all sorts of issues. There is also a referral panel of attorneys throughout the state (attorneys LSE can refer a client to) that have reduced rates for LSE referrals.

If the issue needs a face-to-face meeting, she says, staff attorneys will meet with the client.

Morgan cites such issues as losing benefits or shelter, eviction, losing homecare hours or food stamps as common issues they help clients with. “Anything that puts our vulnerable population at risk – such as elder abuse – we are really focused on.”

Morgan cites Medicaid assistant and Prescription Part D of Medicare as two frequently cited issues. They also handle power of attorney and Advance Care Directives. They do home visits if the client is homebound or they will meet the client at a the offices of a local agency such as the SAPARS office in Paris. LSE also has translators for the blind, deaf and language-challenged.

LSE will connect a client with Money Minders, a statewide program which is aimed at helping older adults maintain their independence and peace of mind or if they are being exploited financially. The Money Minders program matches trained, supervised, bonded volunteers with adults 55 and older who need help establishing a monthly budget and ensuring that all bills get paid in a timely and accurate manner. The program is free for clients who meet low to moderate income and asset guidelines and other eligibility criteria, according to an article in the Bangor Daily News.

LSE will try and help a victim of a scam get their money back and the hotline attorneys can advise on tax issues.

FMI: 1-800-750-5353, www.mainelse.org.