Age-friendly NYC: A Decade of Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

The New York Academy of Medicine initiated Age-friendly NYC in 2007 as a partnership with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council with a mission to maximize the social, physical, and economic participation of older people to improve their health and wellbeing and strengthen their communities. Using a top-down, bottom-up approach, Age-friendly NYC engages and seeks to effect change within the public sector, the private sector, and at the neighborhood level—all grounded in feedback from older New Yorkers.

This panel discussion will highlight the work of Age-friendly NYC over the past ten years and will present opportunities for increased collaboration with the health care sector to address the social determinants of health for older people. The panel will be moderated by Martha Adams Sullivan, DSW, LCSW-R.

Donna Corrado, PhD, is Commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA). In that role, which Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed her to in 2014, she advocates for the city’s 1.55 million older adults; that number is expected to reach 1.86 million by 2040. Dr. Corrado also develops new models of care while strengthening and modernizing traditional services provided directly by DFTA and through hundreds of community partners. Currently, she leads DFTA’s work on “Age-friendly NYC: New Commitments for a City for All Ages,” which includes nearly 90 initiatives that are designed to meet the needs of older adults as they age in place in their homes and the communities they contributed to while raising their families. This important work builds on Dr. Corrado’s decades of service in human services. Over the years, she has held key executive leadership roles with Catholic Charities, Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, and has helped New York’s most vulnerable in a one-on-one setting as a licensed clinical social worker in private practice. Dr. Corrado, who is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and the recipient of numerous honors and prestigious awards, holds a doctorate and master’s degree in social welfare policy and administration.

Martha Adams Sullivan, DSW, LCSW-R, is Executive Director of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, where she oversees one of the largest state operated psychiatric hospital centers in NYS which includes inpatient, residential and outpatient services.  Previously, as Health + Hospitals/ Gouverneur’s Executive Director, Dr. Sullivan led the largest Diagnostic and Treatment Center in New York and a large Skilled Nursing Facility. It was there that Dr. Sullivan developed the innovative and pioneering Center for Older Adults and Their Families and the Women’s Comprehensive Mental Health Program at Gouverneur, where she later served as Director of Behavioral Health. She is the only social worker to have held such a position in HHC. Dr. Sullivan has served as Deputy Commissioner of NYC DOHMH, overseeing chemical dependency, mental health promotion and community liaison.  As Executive Director of the Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Center (St. Barnabas Hospital), she developed specialty services, including the Men’s Mental Health Service, and produced the documentary film Men of Color and Mental Health: Moving from Alienation to Hope. Dr. Sullivan holds a master’s degree from the Silberman School of Social Work of Hunter College at CUNY where she also has served as an adjunct professor. She earned a doctor of social welfare degree from the CUNY Graduate School. She is founder and Chair of the Citywide Behavioral Health Coalition for Black Elders, Inc.

Judith A. Salerno, MD, MS is the President of The New York Academy of Medicine. A physician executive and one of the nation’s pre-eminent leaders in health and health care, Dr. Salerno most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Susan G. Komen ™, the world’s largest breast cancer organization. She joined Komen from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), now the National Academy of Medicine, where she was the Leonard D. Schaeffer Executive Officer, serving as executive director and chief operating officer.   While at IOM, she led its partnership with HBO to create an Emmy-nominated documentary series in 2013 on America’s obesity epidemic, The Weight of the Nation, and co-authored a companion book that examined the crisis and proposed solutions. Previous to IOM, Dr. Salerno served as Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She oversaw the Institute’s research into aging, including research on Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, frailty and function in late life, and the social, behavioral and demographic aspects of aging. Dr. Salerno is a board-certified physician in internal medicine and holds an MD degree from Harvard Medical School and a Master of Science in Health Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Audrey S. Weiner, DSW, MPH is the President for the Fund for the Aged and the Immediate Past President and CEO of The New Jewish Home in New York, serving 12,000 elders each year through its post-acute rehabilitation, long term skilled nursing, senior housing, certified home health agency, adult day health care and care management services. She received her doctorate in Social Welfare Administration from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and her Master in Public Health from Yale University. She is the founding editor of the Journal of Social Work in Long-Term Care. She edited the first text on culture change in long-term care with Judah Ronch, PhD, and in 2013 edited Culture Change in Elder Care and Models and Pathways for Person-Centered Elder Care, both published by Health Professionals Press and edited with Judah Ronch. She is a board member and immediate past chairperson of LeadingAge, past chairperson and member of board of the Continuing Care Leadership Coalition, the New York area non-profit long term care provider association, and a member of the Board of Greater New York  Hospital Association. She previously chaired the LeadingAge Ethics Commission and Talent Cabinet.

Rosanne M. Leipzig, MD, PhD is the Gerald and May Ellen Ritter Professor (tenured) and the Vice Chair for Education of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.  Dr. Leipzig is an internationally recognized leader in Geriatrics and Evidence-Based Medicine, and has received numerous awards for her work including the American College of Physicians Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award, a Joy McCann Scholar award recognizing her expertise in mentoring and medical education, the 2008 Dennis W. Jahnigen Memorial award from the American Geriatrics Society, a Brookdale National Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine and in 2014 the Paula Ettelbrick Community Service Award from Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE). In 2016, she received the Jacobi Medallion, one of the highest honors from the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Leipzig’s career has focused on improving the quality and safety of care for older adults as a practicing (and Board-Certified) geriatrician and palliative medicine specialist, a nationally and internationally recognized medical educator and mentor.  She is the editor-in-chief of Focus on Healthy Aging, Mount Sinai’s monthly newsletter for consumers, and past chair of the Geriatrics Working Group of the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Subspecialty Board on Geriatric Medicine. Her website is www.rosannemd.com.