2008 Seminar
"Illinois Families Under Stress: The Long Term Care Crisis"
Thursday, May 1st, Illinois State Capitol
The demand for long-term care is growing rapidly throughout the nation. The formal and informal long-term care sectors are large now and will need to expand and function well to met the predicted growth in demand in the coming decades. Increasingly, working families will have to support their own children and their parents simultaneously -- a circumstance that has led to the term "sandwich generation" to reflect the squeeze on families from both sides.
Jessica Polos, Policy Analyst, Office of the Illinois State Comptroller
Population Aging: Is Illinois Ready?
Jessica Polos is a policy analyst with the Illinois Office of the Comptroller, where she has worked since 2005. Her primary responsibilities include researching and implementing policy initiatives and producing articles for the Comtroller's magazine, Fiscal Focus. She has recently contributed to Fiscal Focus publications on the Illinois budget, transit systems, pension aolvency and the impact of Illinois' aging population. She has also been a part of the comptroller's efforts to establish state funding for stem cell research and reform campaign finance laws in Illinois. Jessica holds degrees in international studies and anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Joshua M. Wiener, Senior Fellow and Program Director, Aging, Disability and Long Term Care, RTI International
You Can Run, But You Can't Hide: Policy and Problems in Long-Term Care
Joshua M. Wiener, PhD, is a senior fellow and program director for aging, disability and long-term care at RTI International. He is the author or editor of eight books and more than 100 articles on health care for older people, people with disabilities, long-term care, Medicaid, health reform, health-care rationing, and maternal and child health.
He is currently involved in studies of Medicaid home and community-based services, the long-term care work force, quality assurance for long-term care, and projection and simulation models for long-term care. He is co-director of the Administration on Aging-funded Alzheimer's Disease Demonstration Grants to States National Resource Center.
Before coming to RTI International, Dr. Wiencer did policy analysis and research for the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, the health Care Financing Administration, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Congressional Budget Office, the New York State Moreland Act Commission on Nursing Homes and Residential Facilities, and the New York City Department of Health. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and his PhD from Harvard University.
• Presentation: You Can Run, But You Can't Hide: Policy and Problems in Long-Term Care
Additional Material:
Planning Committee:
• Planning Committee Members - Bios
• Members of the legislative panel
Additional Background Material:
• Policy Forum Illinois Families Under Stress
• Center for Medicaid and State Operations
• CQ Researcher: Caring for the Elderly
• Rutgers Center for State Policy: Consumer Direction and Family Caregiving
• Federal Legislation Introduced or Enacted in 110th Congress
Links to additional background material for Illinois Families Under Stress: The Long Term Care Crisis
• FCA: Federal and State Caregiving Legislation
• Illinois' Cash & Counseling Program
• Low Wages Prevalent in Direct Care and Child Care Workforce
• The Long-Term Care Workforce
• Long-Term Care in America
• Nursing Home Care Quality
• Promising Practices in the Field of Care Giving
• Supporting Working Families
