Charlene Harrington
Leaders from national, state and local politics joined the group Planning for Elders in the Central City to honor Charlene Harrington RN, PhD, with its fifth annual Harry Weinstein, MD, Award in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding contributions to San Francisco seniors, persons with disabilities and their care providers.
During an Oct. 26 luncheon attended by many of the city's leaders in health policy, Harrington also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a Certificate of Recognition from Assemblyman Mark Leno and the California State Assembly and a proclamation from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom naming Oct. 26, 2006 as Charlene Harrington Day.
Founded in 1990, Planning for Elders in the Central City (PECC) is dedicated to improving quality of life for elders, persons with disabilities and their care providers. The award celebrates the career of founding director Harry Weinstein, MD, a Mount Zion physician and UCSF emeritus professor of medicine who has advocated for more than 50 years for quality home care services to enable the elderly and chronically ill to remain in their homes.
Harrington is professor of sociology and nursing in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the UCSF School of Nursing. She teaches doctoral students in sociology, gerontological nursing and health policy. Her research focuses on public policies at the federal, state and local levels regarding long-term care for the elderly and disabled.
Norma Satten, former executive director of PECC and a current board member of the organization, nominated Harrington for the award. She said that Harrington's research has contributed to changes and improvements in the continuum of long-term care services for seniors and adults with disabilities.
"I've known Charlene for more than 25 years," Satten said in an interview. "In all this time she has put her heart into trying to make long-term care better for the people who need those services. Charlene is changing the way we look at long-term care. She is one of the people who have showed us that nursing homes are not really the best place for many people - that we can provide care at home or in community settings, rather than in institutions. That's true for the elderly and also for adults with disabilities, who have long-term care needs but can live independently and work at jobs."
Harrington said the political recognition she received in addition to the award was a complete surprise - particularly the mayor's proclamation of Charlene Harrington Day.
Nursing Home Reform
In 1986, Harrington sat on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee whose findings led to the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987. She developed standards to evaluate the quality of care and quality of life experienced by patients in nursing homes, and recently used that data to develop a consumer information system that is the basis for
Medicare's Nursing Home Compare website.
Since 1994, Harrington's work in collecting and analyzing state home and community-based service programs and policies has led to an expansion of these programs throughout the country. In California, she led the development of a state-of-the-art information system that consumers can use to evaluate a range of services - in-the home, in the community and in institutions. That
website is a joint project of UCSF and the California HealthCare Foundation.
In 2003, Harrington became the principal investigator of a five-year $4.5 million
national Center for Personal Assistance Services based at UCSF and funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Research at the center has shown that a smaller proportion of elderly and disabled people live in nursing homes today compared with 1990, while far more depend on assisted living residences or receive care in their homes. But while the need for personal assistance workers is likely to double by 2050, the ranks of these workers will decline unless low pay, poor benefits and other working conditions are improved.
Harrington is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and was elected to the Institute of Medicine. She has written more than 135 research articles, has co-edited five books, lectures widely and frequently testifies before legislatures and public policy groups. Her many awards include recognition by national nursing and geriatric nursing organizations, the prestigious Helen Nahm Research Lecture of the UCSF School of Nursing and the 2006 Faculty Mentorship Award from the UCSF Graduate Students' Association.
At the PECC awards luncheon in San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre, the Weinstein award was presented by one of Harrington's many co-authors, gerontology pioneer Carroll Estes, PhD, founder of the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging and former chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the UCSF School of Nursing.
Many of Harrington's UCSF colleagues attended the event, among them Jeanie Kayser-Jones, RN, PhD, professor of nursing and former director of the UCSF John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and Joan Wood, PhD, adjunct professor of nursing and medicine and director of UCSF's Academic Geriatric Resource Center. Among the community leaders present were Meg Cooch, executive director of PECC; David Werdegar, MD, MPH, president of the Institute on Aging and former director of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development; Vera Haile, San Francisco Aging and Adult Services commissioner; UCSF assistant clinical professor Eleanor Louie and Justine Choy of the California Endowment, which helped to underwrite the event.
Bruce Spaulding, UCSF senior vice chancellor for University Advancement and Planning, supported the presence of low-income seniors at the event.
Related Links:
Medicare Nursing Home Compare
UCSF/California HealthCare Foundation website to help choose quality long-term care
New Web Site Helps Californians Choose a Quality Nursing Home Press Release
UCSF Center for Personal Assistance Services
