News Release

DAAS Award Winners Recognized at NC Conference on Aging

November 6, 2006

The N.C. Division of Aging and Adult Services presents three awards annually to recognize individuals, organizations, programs and communities that have made significant contributions in support of the Division's efforts to enhance resources, services, and opportunities for our state's older citizens. The 2006 awards were recently presented at the North Carolina Conference on Aging.

The recipient of the Ewald W. Busse Award is Dr. Laura Hanson, geriatrician and Associate Professor at the UNC School of Medicine. She has focused her research and clinical services on meeting the health care needs of the most vulnerable of older adults-those in pain, those in nursing homes and those at the end of life. Dr. Hanson teaches medical residents and fellows, preparing them for the demands of research and service to people who are dying and in pain. Dr. Hanson's research agenda includes five current grants awarded from national institutes and foundations such as the National Institute of Health, Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, and the Fetzer Institute. She also contributes through professional and public service at the state and national levels, and has influenced North Carolina aging policy through her service to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, the North Carolina End of Life Care Coalition, and the Penalty Review Committee of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. She also serves on the Ethics committee of the Society of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Hanson is a prolific researcher and writer, having written more than 30 peer-reviewed research articles on quality of care in nursing facilities, palliative care and end of life care. She helped create the palliative care unit at UNC Hospital and has been co-director of that unit since 2001. In addition, Dr. Hanson serves on the advisory board for Epidemiology of Dying and End of Life Experience. Dr. Hanson's efforts have lead to measurable improvements in the quality of care provided to older adults and other vulnerable populations, in more effective long-term care oversight systems and policies, and in the compassionate practice of medicine.

The recipient of the George L. Maddox Award is UNC Institute on Aging Associate Director for Public Service Bill Lamb. A social worker by education and training, Bill has been active for over 36 years in the field of human services in North Carolina. After retiring from State Government in 2000, where he had a long and distinguished career with the Division of Social Services and the Division of Aging and Adult Services, Bill continued his leadership in aging through his work at the UNC Institute on Aging. Some of his many accomplishments include: serving as one of the first state consultants to help implement the Medicaid Community Alternatives Program; staffing the Department of Health and Human Services' Domiciliary Reform Committee, which defined assisted living, provided for more cost-efficient reimbursement via Medicaid funds, and improved quality standards for facilities; helping to produce the first three State Aging Services Plans, and North Carolina Comes of Age, a demographic profile of older North Carolinians; and serving as a primary architect of the Home and Community Care Block Grant. Among his many roles at the UNC Institute on Aging, Bill chairs the North Carolina Conference on Aging, directs the Senior Leadership Enhancement Program, and coordinates the Aging Boot Camp for the N.C. Association on Aging. Bill may be best known for giving extensively of his time and talents to provide leadership to aging associations and advocacy groups. He is the immediate past president of Friends of Residents in Long Term Care and a current member of the Board for Friends. He serves as treasurer for the N.C. Coalition on Aging and for the North Carolina Association on Aging. He is also a charter and current member of the Executive Council for AARP North Carolina. He is active in the National Association of Social Work at both the state and national levels, having served as Past President of the North Carolina Chapter and leading North Carolina's efforts to establish standards for social work practice. In 2004, he was selected as Social Worker of the Year in North Carolina. Governor Easley appointed Bill to the Social Worker Certification Licensing Board in 2003, and he was selected as Board Chair in 2005.

The recipients of the Ernest B. Messer Award are SHIIP and the Medicare Partners State Level Coordinating Committee. The Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP), a division of the North Carolina Department of Insurance, has lead responsibility in our State for education, outreach and enrollment assistance for Medicare Part D. The more than 20 organizations comprising the Medicare Partners State Level Coordinating Committee are a group of public and private entities that have a special interest in ensuring that as many North Carolinians as possible enroll in a Part D plan and that low-income persons sign up for the subsidy program. SHIIP, working in collaboration with 109 local SHIIP coordinating agencies and the 880 local SHIIP volunteers, partnered with over 20 agencies and organizations to provide education and outreach to Medicare recipients. Members of the Medicare Partners State Level Coordinating Committee include the N.C. Association of Area Agencies on Aging, the N.C. Coalition on Aging, the N.C. Division of Medical Assistance, the· N.C. Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse, the N.C. Division of Aging and Adult Services, the N.C. AIDS Drug Assistance Program, the N.C. Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, the N.C. Office of Research, Demonstrations, and Rural Health Development, the N.C. DHHS Office of Citizen Services, the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, the N.C. Association of Pharmacists, the N.C. Retired Governmental Employees Association, N.C. Retired School Personnel, AARP North Carolina, the General Baptist State Convention, Senior PHARMAssist, Health and Disability Advocates, the Health Inequities Program, the Mental Health Association in North Carolina, Inc., the State Health Plan, the Medicare Rx Assist Network, the Medicare Today Program, My Medicare Matters Program and Kerr Drugs. Through the countless efforts of the State SHIIP Office, the local SHIIP coordinating agencies, the corps of local SHIIP volunteers and the Medicare Partners State Level Coordinating Committee, over 1,190,000 Medicare eligible persons in North Carolina now have drug coverage. This represents 92 percent of North Carolina's Medicare beneficiaries and is one of the highest percentages of enrollment in the country. Our State also has one of the highest percentages of enrolling persons in the low-income subsidy program. This was accomplished as SHIIP also effectively carried out its other business of advising citizens about Medicare, Medicare supplemental insurance, long-term care insurance, and other health insurance concerns. The efforts of SHIIP and the Medicare Partners State Level Coordinating Committee have provided both tangible financial benefits and peace of mind to North Carolina's large and growing population of older citizens and their families.