Fordham University will host a conference on geriatric mental health on Wednesday, March 21, in McNally Amphitheatre on the Lincoln Center campus. The conference, “Overcoming the Obstacles Through Advocacy, Practice and Research,” will feature a number of panel discussions and a keynote address by Michael B. Friedman, L.M.S.W., chairperson of the Geriatric Mental Health Alliance of New York and director of the Center for Policy and Advocacy of the Mental Health Association of New York City and Westchester.
The daylong conference is sponsored by the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service Alumni Association and seven other state and local community organizations. In 2005, New York was the first state in the country to pass a geriatric bill to deal with the impending “elder boom” and the growing mental health challenges of older adults.
Some of the presenters include Edwin Mendez-Santiago, L.M.S.W., commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging, and Deborah Heiser, Ph.D., president-elect of the State Society on Aging of New York’s Board of Directors and co-editor Spiritual Assessment And Intervention With Older Adults: Current Directions and Applications (Haworth Pastoral Press, 2005).
