In this week’s episode Robyn Golden and Bonnie Ewald from the Coalition for Social Work and Health out of Rush University will discuss policy barriers that are currently preventing social workers from integrating into health care settings. They will also discuss opportunities both legislative and non-legislative that will help integration.
Robyn Golden serves as the Associate Vice President of Social Work and Community Health and Chair of the Department of Social Work at Rush University Medical Center. She is Co-Director of Rush’s Center for Excellence in Aging and the Center for Health and Social Care Integration. She serves as the Principal Investigator for Rush’s Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) and co-directs the Rush Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging. She leads Rush’s Caregiver Initiative, which draws together evidence-based practices into a single framework to improve care for older adults and caregivers. Her faculty appointments are in Nursing, Medicine, Psychiatry and Health Systems Management.
For over 35 years, Ms. Golden has been actively involved in service provision, program development, interprofessional education, research and public policy aimed at developing innovative initiatives and systems integration to improve health and well-being. In 2003-04, she was the John Heinz Senate Fellow for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and she is a Past Chair of the American Society on Aging. In 2017, she received the Gerontological Society of America’s Maxwell A. Pollack Award for Productive Aging. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and is a National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Social Work Pioneer. Ms. Golden holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and Bachelor’s degree from Miami University.
Bonnie Ewald is the Managing Director of the Center for Health and Social Care Integration (CHaSCI), an applied think-tank based at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago that advances practices and policies that expand access to social care. In this role, Bonnie leads CHaSCI’s strategy and implementation of its workforce development trainings, care model implementation support, and policy advocacy initiatives that advance coordinated and comprehensive care. Bonnie is also Manager of Strategic Development and Policy for Rush’s Social Work and Community Health department, assisting with program development and evaluation and provides strategic management for Rush’s Community Health Worker and AmeriCorps teams. She serves as assistant professor in Rush’s Social Work department and adjunct faculty in the Health Systems Management department. She also serves on the Chicagoland Regional Planning Council for the American Society on Aging, leads the policy core for Rush’s Center for Excellence in Aging, and serves as an adjunct instructor for the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Department of Social Work. Bonnie has her master’s in public policy studies from the University of Chicago, a post-graduate certificate in Sustainable Urban Design from Archeworks, and a bachelor’s in mathematics and geography from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Articles
Health Care Transformation (socialworkers.org)
Integrating Social Care into Healthcare Delivery – HealthCetera (healthmediapolicy.com)