Rebecca A. Mabe, MSW, LCSW

"I applied for the Health and Aging Policy Fellows program to address the deficiencies I had seen and personally experienced as a caregiver. Gaps in behavioral health and quality of life standards and measurement, lagging implementation of evidence based long term care practices, as well as the lack of accountability in quality outcomes in Medicaid funded long term care settings, and the disconnect between public policy priorities and the measurable suffering of the diverse aging and disabled populations served in these settings drove me to learn about how to advocate for change. Both of my parents became catastrophically disabled in their mid-sixties, and though I was very grateful that my father had VA funding for his needs, the combination of mental illness and disability made both finding and funding suitable long term nursing care impossible for my mother, though I had initially felt equipped as an LCSW formally certified in Geriatrics who was very connected to state and local resources."