Cheri Lattimer, a leading authority on elderly health-care issues, will discuss how families and caregivers can better address seniors’ needs at Wartburg College Thursday, Nov. 15.
Lattimer, chief executive officer and president of Little Rock-based Consulting Management Innovators, will speak at the President’s Convocation in McCaskey Lyceum of Saemann Student Center at 11:30 a.m.
A panel discussion on elderly health-care issues will follow in the lyceum at 1:30 p.m. with a panel featuring Joan Zlotnik, director of the Social Work Policy Institute in Washington D.C., and three health-care and social work officials.
Both events — sponsored by the Waverly Health Center — are for seniors, families, caregivers and anyone involved in health care, social work or trying to navigate the health-care system.
Lattimer, a registered nurse, is internationally known for establishing a new model for health-care options and assisting consumers in developing self-managing skills. She is executive director for the Case Management Society of America and the National Transitions of Care Coalition.
With seniors and their family caregivers taking on more accountability for managing health care, Lattimer will review the gaps and barriers they face, while offering models and resources to improve the experience.
“Aging is a topic relevant to all of us — youth, college, students, mid-lifers and seniors,” said Dr. Susan Vallem, Wartburg professor of social work. “Today we ask seniors, their families and caregivers to take more accountability for managing and coordinating their health-care needs. However, the health-care system is often fragmented, confusing and sometimes even frightening.”
Vallem said Lattimer is a champion of using “multidisciplinary collaboration teams” —the senior, family, medical providers, social workers and community agencies.
The teams, she added, “can enhance successful communication,” while offering “the value-added interventions social workers and nurses bring advocating with our seniors and families throughout the continuum of care.”
Besides Zlotnik, the panelists involved in the discussion of the health-care issues are:
- Kelly Meyers, director of regulatory and government affairs, Iowa Health Care Association and the Iowa Center for Assisted Living.
- Patty Esch, associate director, case management, Hawkeye Valley Area Agency on Aging.
- Kyle Richards, chief executive officer, Waverly Health Center.