19th Annual Ministering to the Elderly Conference to Address ”Ethical Decision-Making“
The 19th Annual Ministering to the Elderly Conference will analyze issues and concerns surrounding “Society, Aging and Our Responsibility: Ethical Decision-Making” on Wednesday, May 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, 137 Northeast 19 Street, Miami.
The conference is being hosted by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Mishkan Miami: The Jewish Connection for Spiritual Support, Miami Jewish Health Systems, and Jewish Community Services of South Florida. Other sponsors include The Archdiocese of Greater Miami, the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, Senior Advantages, Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care and Vitas.
The program will feature a detailed examination of the moral and ethical challenges facing health professionals, families and society, as aging Americans require increasing amounts of care and often possess limited financial resources. The event’s goal is to serve as a practical forum for caring health professionals, community and spiritual leaders, and others concerned with enriching the lives of the elderly.
The keynote speaker will be Martha Holstein, Ph.D., author of Ethics, Aging, and Society: The Critical Turn, instructor at Loyola University-Chicago and Co-Director of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform. She has worked in the field of aging for more than 40 years with a focus on policy, ethics and gender issues, and will discuss “The Dynamic Nature of Ethical Decision-Making.”
Other professional, spiritual and community authorities will address the issue from a societal/policy perspective, and also will provide case studies and models for ethical analysis. An ethical dilemma situation will challenge participants to consider how these ideas might manifest themselves in actual practice.
“The social framework of our communities will need to take into account not only the needs of the aging population, but also the webs which support their care, including families (mainly women), healthcare and long-term care facilities, as well as community living options,” said Rabbi Frederick L. Klein, Chair of the Ministering to the Elderly Organizing Committee and Director of Mishkan Miami. “Indeed, the care for the elderly is not about ‘them,’ but it is about ‘us’ as a society. In the next generation we will need to look toward an ethic of aging that not only preserves the dignity of our aging population, but recognizes that realizing this goal must be a collective effort.”
Conference participants also will recognize Rabbi Judith Lazarus Siegal, Senior Rabbi of Temple Judea in Coral Gables, as Clergy of the Year. Rabbi Siegal serves on the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, and on the boards of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s South Dade Branch and the Women’s Rabbinical Network. A past Co-Chair of the Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews Interfaith Clergy Dialogue, she is currently a fellow of the Jewish Outreach Institute’s Big Tent Judaism Professional Affiliates.
Registration fee for the conference is $40 per person, which includes continental breakfast. Psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage and family therapists who attend the conference will be eligible for continuing education credits. Sponsorships and exhibition tables also are available. For more information on the 19th Annual Ministering to the Elderly conference, please call 786.866.8611 or visit JewishMiami.org/ministering.
