Three distinguished experts will speak later this month at an IowaWatch forum on important decisions Iowans have to make about long-term elder care. The forum, titled Critical Decisions About Elder Care, will be in Des Moines on Tuesday, April 29.
The speakers will be Clark Kauffman, a Des Moines Register investigative reporter; Deanna Clingan-Fischer, Iowa’s long-term care ombudsman; and John Hale, founder and owner of the Hale Group. The Hale group is an advocacy, consulting and government relations firm in Ankeny.
The non-profit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch will host the forum. Lyle Muller, the center’s executive director-editor, will moderate the forum. Aging Resources of Central Iowa is the event sponsor.
The dialogue will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Franklin Avenue Library, 5000 Franklin Ave. [Link to map] Attendees can submit questions before as well as form questions throughout the forum.
There are a growing number of aging Iowans. The panel of speakers will discuss decisions such as choosing a care facility and the rights of long-term care residents. “IowaWatch exists to take an investigative and in-depth look at what effects Iowans,“ Muller said. “Our hope is that we can create a deeper understanding of the critical decisions people make everyday about the care of Iowa’s elderly citizens.”
Erin Jordan, the IowaWatch board president, said that this is an important matter in Iowa. “The number of elderly Iowans is increasing every year and we want to make sure our loved ones are well taken care of,” Jordan said. “There’s a lot of different choices of long-term care, and this forum should help Iowans make those decisions.”
Event sponsor:
Aging Resources of Central Iowa
The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that does investigative and public affairs journalism; makes that journalism available free on its website, IowaWatch.org, and through media partners; and trains college students to do this journalism at an ethical, high level.
