M. C. Terry Hokenstad, Ph.D., Ralph S. and Dorothy P. Schmitt Professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University

Friday February 12, 2010
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall – Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues,

Paying Attention to a Real Problem…

Washington DC, once it digs out from the snow, will be back to one of its periodic bouts of elite panic about an “entitlement crisis” caused by an “aging society” that supposedly requires extraordinary procedures (such as a powerful “bipartisan deficit-reduction commission”) to enact major changes in programs for the elderly, such as Social Security and Medicare. Conventional wisdom declares that the fiscal burden on “our children and grandchildren” requires drastic policy changes.

As usual, conventional “wisdom” is anything but, and ignores the real problem.

The serious concern about an “aging society” going forward is not money. Projected cost increases for Social Security are fairly modest, in part because the program is not so generous. Cost increases for Medicare are part of the broader problem of health care cost control, which is mostly not about generations or aging. What people should be worrying about is manpower: as more Americans are old and frail, who will provide help and caring. The scary burden on “children and grandchildren” is not costs. It is who will take care of Mom when her memory starts to fade. How can people ensure that their parents — and themselves — can have some dignity and comfort as they become more frail?

This is the issue of long-term care, and it is wrapped up in questions not merely of economics but of family structure, social structure, and social institutions. The Netherlands is often viewed as having some of the best institutions to address the challenge of caring for the frail elderly. Terry Hokenstad is engaged in a comparative study of long-term care policy in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the USA, and he was Visiting Scholar at the European Institute of Comparative Social Studies in Maastricht in 2008. He is one of the world’s leading experts on this topic, but there are many others in our community who know a great deal about the challenge. It should be a highly interesting discussion.

As usual, we will gather in Room 9 of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, on the lower level of Crawford Hall, for free cookies, beverages, and brown bag lunch.

Best regards,
Joe White

About Our Guest

M.C. “Terry” Hokenstad, Ph.D., A.C.S.W. is the Ralph S. and Dorothy P. Schmitt Professor at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. He also serves as Professor of Global Health in the School of Medicine.

Long active in international organizations, Dr. Hokenstad serves as a consultant to the United Nations and was a member of the United States Delegation to the U.N. World Assembly on Ageing in 2002. He has been president of the North American and Caribbean Region of the International Association of Schools of Social Work and has served as both treasurer and membership secretary of IASSW. At the national level, he has been president of the Council on Social Work Education and chair of the International Committee for the National Association of Social Workers.

Professor Hokenstad has written extensively on international themes and has served as editor-in chief of the International Social Work Journal and co-editor of special issues for the journals of International Aging, Social Policy and Administration, Sociology and Social Welfare, and Applied Social Sciences. He serves on the editorial boards of several other scholarly journals. His publications include seven books and numerous articles, chapters and monographs, in the fields of comparative social welfare, care of the elderly, and social work practice and education. His books include Issues in International Social Work: Global Challenges for a New Century (with James Midgley, 1997) and Models of International Collaboration in Social Work Education (with Lynne M. Healy and Yvonne Asamoah, 2003). In 2004, he co-edited the book entitled Lessons from Abroad: Adapting International Social Welfare Innovations.

Dr. Hokenstad has served as a Fulbright research scholar at the Institute of Applied Social Research in Oslo, Norway, as a visiting scholar at the National Institute of Social Work in London, and as a senior Fulbright lecturer at Stockholm University in Sweden. He taught and carried out research as a Canterbury fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and as an academic visitor at the London School of Economics. He has led delegations of social workers and social work educators to China, Cuba, Japan, Russia, and South Africa, and has lectured and led workshops in those countries, as well as in India, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and throughout Europe. In addition, he has directed affiliation programs funded by the United States Information Agency with universities in Sweden and Hungary.

Global ageing has been a special focus of Dr. Hokenstad’s career. He is a member of the Nongovernmental Organization Committee on Ageing at the United Nations, and in 2000, was appointed to serve on the UN Technical Committee responsible for drafting the International Plan of Action on Ageing. In the 1990s, he headed a multidisciplinary training and technical assistance project for health care and social service professionals in 20 Central and Eastern European countries. The project funded by the Open Society Institute was designed to support the development of home and community care for older people in transitional societies. His cross-national research projects have examined innovations in elder care and pension policies in different countries.

Born in Nebraska, Dr. Hokenstad earned his Bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and his professional social work degree at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University’s Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare. He also holds a Certificate in Educational Management from Harvard University. He received the 2006 International Sarnat Award from the National Association of Social Workers and is recognized as a Social Work Pioneer by NASW. He has received the Significant Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council on Social Work Education, and in 2004, he received the IASSW Katherine Kendall Award for a “Lifetime of Distinguished International Service to Social Work Education.” In 2009, he was chosen as “Educator of the Year” by the Ohio Association of Gerontology and Education and as “Partner in Advancing Education for International Social Work” by the CSWE Global Commission.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

February 19: An Actuary’s View of Health Care Reform Estimates. With John Bertko, former Vice President and Chief Actuary, Humana Inc.

April 23: What the Health Care Reform Law Will Do; or, Why Health Care Reform Failed; or, Health Care Reform: What Next? or, All of the Above. With Joe White, Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy

The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of Crawford Hall. Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made. On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion.

Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building. The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch. On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.

For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.