LDI research Seminar featuring Rosalie Kane, DSW

Rosalie Kane, DSW
Professor, Division of Health Services Research and Policy, School of Public Health; member of the Graduate faculty, School of Social Work University of Minnesota

"Reinventing Long-Term Care for Older People in the United States"

December 5, 2003
12:00 - 1:30 PM
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium

Abstract Biosketch Slides

(co-sponsored by the RAND/Hartford Center of Interdisciplinary Geriatric Health Care Research)

Abstract:
Based on Dr. Kane's research and an overview of developments in long-term care in the last few decades, Rosalie Kane argues for a dramatic transformation, which incorporates an emphasis on flexible personal attendant services and new forms of residential care. The definition of quality will also need to change to emphasize quality of life. Dr. Kane will describe models that offer some hope for dramatic changes, some from model states, some with reference to younger populations with disability. Dr. Kane will also describe logistic, political, and attitudinal obstacles to change.

Biosketch:
Rosalie Kane, DSW, is a professor in the Division of Health Services Research and Policy at the School of Public Health and a Faculty Associate at the Center for Bioethics. A researcher and policy analyst concentrating on long-term care, since 1988 she has directed the National Long-Term Care Resource Center (LTCRC) which examines, as part of its mandate, ethical issues related to long-term care programs and policies.

Current projects with ethics implications include: a focus group study of consumer perspectives on privacy in assisted living (funded by the American Association of Retired Persons); an exploration of the tradeoffs between safety and freedom in long-term care (funded by The Retirement Research Foundation); and an examination of appropriate roles for family members in long-term care (an outgrowth of a study funded by the National Institute on Aging). In the past 5 years, the LTCRC has studied Nurse Practice Acts, looked at positive and negative relationships between long-term care regulations and personal autonomy of long-term care clientele, and examined the legal and moral implications of professionals giving or refraining from giving direct recommendations and advice about long-term care providers. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. Kane is presently conducting a far-reaching evaluation of assisted living programs in the state of Oregon where, by design, the service incorporates privacy and risk-taking for frail elderly long-term care clients.