Health Care: Policy Challenges and Practice Implications
Robert B. Hudson
Professor and Chair, Boston University School of Social Work Department of Social Welfare Policy
Friday, October 31
10:30 am–12:00 pm
At the 2008 Gero-Ed Track Kick-Off event, Robert Hudson delivered an inspiring speech on how social workers can help older Americans and their caregivers shoulder the burden of the critical health care issues that they will soon face. Urging his audience to “institutionalize care while deinstitutionalizing the clients themselves,” Hudson challenged attendees to advocate for change in Medicare and Medicaid’s “residual policies” that are adversely affecting older adults and their families.
These calls for change included reforming Medicare to recognize the changing health care profile of program beneficiaries and combating efforts to shift health care risks from government and employers to individuals and families. There is also a looming shortage of geriatric care workers prepared to competently address the needs of the rapidly growing older adult population. Hudson noted that workforce shortage not only means that older adults may experience decreased access to care, but also that their quality of care is threatened too.
Further, Hudson asked the profession to increase its outreach to caregivers, who often feel government assistance should be a last resort when caring for their own. He contended that social work has a critical role to play. The importance of social work's contributions to effective and efficient direct service provision must be impressed upon policymakers, as families navigate the increasingly complex health care system.
Hudson's writings on the policies and politics of aging have appeared in Social Service Review, Families in Society, Milbank Quarterly, International Social Security Review, and The Gerontologist, among other publications.