Wurzweiler Conference Tackles Crisis in Elder Health Care

Human service and legal professionals gathered in Weisberg Commons on May 1 to advocate for much needed changes in the delivery of health care on the local, state and national levels. “Navigating the Health Care Maze: At the Cusp of Change,” sponsored by Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Bronx Regional Interagency Council on Aging and Washington Heights/Inwood Interagency Council on Aging, was the seventh in a series of annual conferences on issues in aging organized by Wurzweiler and its planning partners.

The program began with a PowerPoint presentation by Evelyn Laureano ’05, PhD, executive director, Neighborhood Self-Help by Older Persons Project, Inc., highlighting comments and recurring experiences of older persons frustrated by the current health care system. After greetings from Wurzweiler Dean Sheldon R. Gelman, PhD, and alumnae Fern Hertzberg ‘87, MSW, executive director, ARC XVI, Washington Heights/Inwood Council on Aging, and Phyllis Erlbaum-Zur ‘03, PhD, director of admissions and discharge services, Jewish Home and Hospital Life Care System, the gathering was addressed by the panel of featured experts: Cardozo alumnus Martin Petroff, JD, Martin Petroff and Associates; Michealle Carpenter, JD, deputy policy director and counsel, Medicare Rights Center; Amy Bernstein, The LTC Insurance Resource Center, New York City Department for the Aging; Valerie Bogart, JD, director, Evelyn Frank Legal Resource Program at Self-Help Community Services, Inc.; and Michael Olender, associate state director, AARP.

Oleander stated:

We have a real opportunity to move ahead on health care reform with the White House following through on campaign promises regarding the ‘Divided We Fail’ platform and Congressional activity on such issues as Medicare/doctor reimbursement and funding for research.

The panel discussion was followed by workshops focusing on Medicare Part D, Medicaid Eligibility and Trusts, Medicaid and Long Term Care, Long Term Care Insurance, Mental Health Care System, and Managed Care and Communication. Joining panelists as workshop leaders were Betty Duggan, director of volunteer and community programs, Medicare Rights Center; Menahem Dimant, MD, Beth Abraham Family of Health Services; and Martha Sullivan, DSW, executive director, Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Center. Post-workshop speaker Mark Hannay of the Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign reported on city-wide efforts on behalf of universal health care reform in anticipation of the Congressional vote this fall. The presentations closed with Rosa Perla Resnick ‘76, PhD, of the United Nation’s NGO Committee on Ageing, who reported that the worldwide elderly population will approach two billion by 2050.

“I thought the conference was great. The workshops were extensive and well put-together,” said attendee Jose Lopez of the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged.