The Technology, Bureaucracy, and Financing of Aging
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Presented By
Presented by the Lyceum Society
Speaker: Ellen Polivy, MSW, LCSW
This is a mid-day "Bring your own lunch" Brown Bag seminar.
This talk begins a dialogue about the endless questions that come with medical issues at our age. The focus will be on the many things you can do ahead of time to be prepared for the crises coming.
For example: You fall and break both a hip and wrist...
- Which hospital do you go to?
- How do you get there?
- If a doctor suggests a radical procedure and need a fast OK, do you know where to go for a second opinion?
- If after only 3 days in the hospital, you must be transferred within 2 days to rehab, have you checked out the nearby good ones?
- What kind of high-tech aids are available—for walking, talking, hearing, seeing—to enable you to remain independent?
Ellen stresses that she is not a lawyer, but she can alert us to our many problems that border on the legal, and that depend on the state we live in.
For example: Your daughter has the standard Power of Attorney.
- Do you know that she probably must make some changes to it?
- What are the pitfalls of a Health Proxy?
- Must you spend down to your last dime for elder care?
- How can we pay for all this and stay home?
Don't be like our widower member who, at death's door, tied up his money irrevocably, certain that his wife would outlive him. She didn't.
Ellen Polivy, our guide through these thickets, has a BA from SUNY Binghamton and an MSW from Hunter College, with a BCD (Board Certified Diplomat) in Social Work. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), she has a long list of correlate credentials: Neuro-linguistic Programming, Eriksonian Hypnotherapy, Rational Emotive Therapy, and much experience with alcoholism among the aged. She is a founder of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers.
At American Express Operations Center she designed their first Employee Assistance Program. At NY Telephone, she created the Troubled Employees Program, serving 6000 employees. Since 1981 she has been pioneering local and long-distance geriatric care management services, including managing and supervising elder care consultants in Florida and New York.
She would like an interactive session, so bring your most specific questions.