Dr. Ken Shulman

Total 19 Posts

Dr. Shulman graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto in 1973 and did postgraduate training in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He then went on to do specialty training in Geriatric Psychiatry in London, England. Since 1978, he has been based at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto. He is the inaugural recipient of the Richard Lewar Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto. Currently, he is the Chief of the Brain Sciences Program at Sunnybrook. Dr. Shulman has had a longstanding interest in the issue of testamentary capacity and vulnerability to undue influence and has been qualified as an expert witness in Estate matters in Ontario and Alberta. Together with colleagues he has published several papers in the area of testamentary capacity in international journals and is a frequent presenter at legal continuing education conferences on Estates and Trusts. Email: Ken.Shulman@sunnybrook.ca

Looking back, looking forward

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At year end, we typically engage in a retrospective examination, looking back on events and trying to make sense of them.  Simultaneously, there is a human instinct to make predictions as well as resolutions, both of which are notoriously unreliable.  The notion of predicting the future is one that is inherent in medicine by virtue of the fundamental role of a physician to make a diagnosis, but also concomitantly a….

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Capacity Law, Contested wills, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Undue influence

How should we define “Geriatric”? certainly not age 65!

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A recent spate of media articles has emphasized the rapid growth of an elderly or “geriatric” cohort who are regularly referred to as ‘65 and over’.  This has been labelled the “Silver Tsunami”, an unfortunate term that does not apply to most older women in North America.  In my case, silver is harder and harder to detect as my hairline recedes. The media has been ablaze for the last few….

How should we define “Geriatric”? certainly not age 65! Continue Reading »

Elder Care, Geriatric Care Management

Testamentary Capacity and Lewy Body Dementia

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Today’s blog was written by guest blogger Dr. Richard Shulman. Dr. Shulman is a Geriatric  Psychiatrist, and is the Service Medical Director for Seniors Mental Health Services at Trillium Health Partners (Mississauga Hospital, Credit Valley Hospital and Queensway Health Centre). He is available for independent medical-legal capacity assessments. He is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. It was my pleasure to have participated in the recent 18th annual Estates and Trusts….

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Geriatric Care Management, In the News, Testamentary Capacity

Suicide notes and holograph Wills

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The relationship between suicide and mental disorder has been well explored.  The recent death of Robin Williams has brought this issue into the public eye. Most studies (especially in later life) find that the majority of suicides are associated with clinically significant psychiatric illness, particularly mood disorders such as Depression.  Moreover, suicide notes are left by about 25% of people who die from suicide.  How many of those notes contain….

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Estate Planning

‘Ralph the Programme Guy’ (part 2)

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Last week, Audrey Miller took the initiative to blog about ‘Ralph the Programme Guy’ and reflected on the lesson learned from his ‘eccentric’ life and sad, lonely death. I hope that the blogosphere will forgive my indulgence in following up on an issue that is only indirectly related to testamentary capacity. Since my childhood days,  I also had known ‘Ralph’, whose real name was Rayfield Platner. Rayfield was probably a variation….

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Estate Planning

Is there such a thing as a ‘Lucid Interval’ in dementia?

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Among other medico-legal concepts,  the ‘lucid interval’ is a long held concept widely accepted in case law as a possible means of countering a challenge to testamentary and related capacities.  In parallel, the clinical phenomenon of cognitive fluctuation has been considered a common element of several neurodegenerative disorders (dementias) including Alzheimer Disease, but especially prevalent in Vascular Dementia and Dementia with Lewy Bodies. In the spirit of the philosopher Karl….

Is there such a thing as a ‘Lucid Interval’ in dementia? Continue Reading »

Elder Care, Estate Planning, Home-Right
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