Eli Cohen
Elias S. Cohen, attorney active in the fields of aging and disability has been engaged in the human services for over half a century. Trained in public administration and law, he has directed public and non-profit agencies ranging from the Office of Family Services of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (14,000 employees and a $500,000,000 budget in 1970) to the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (31 employees and a $1.5 million budget). He has been engaged in the administration, development and evaluation of human service programs across a broad age range and service characteristics. He has been involved directly in the field of Aging since 1956 when he became Pennsylvania's first Commissioner on Aging. Earlier, he had served as Indiana’s Assistant Commissioner of Mental Health and Assistant Superintendent of the world’s third largest mental hospital, Manteno State Hospital in Illinois.
He has been active in knowledge dissemination throughout his career which includes six years as Editor-in-Chief of The Gerontologist, a major journal of the Gerontological Society, a 17 year association with WITF-TV/FM as writer, consultant, developer, researcher, and ombudsman, lecturer on telecommunications and human services, television lecturer, guest and host on local and national programs. He is the author of over 100 articles or chapters in books or journals of law, gerontology, social services and health care. Since 1991 he has served as executive producer and writer on a variety of television productions used to organize groups and/or programs related to Hospital Discharge Planning for the Elderly, Community Collaboratives for Children at Risk, Juvenile Detention Reform, and Case Management Training for Personnel serving Older Persons.
Research projects for which he has been Principal Investigator include major technical assistance projects to develop state programs for the disabled, survey projects on independent living needs and longitudinal studies on services for the elderly, development of training protocols for nursing home staffs, and development of audiovisual training materials.
Related WorksPublications
- Disability and Aging: The Quest for Coherent Public Policy. Public Policy & Aging Report, Fall 2004, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 7-11.
- The Right to Flourish: Self-Determination and People Who Are Elderly, Center for Self-Determination, 2005 (co-written with Thomas Nerney)http://www.self-determination.com/publications/sdaging.html
Books
Community services and long term care: Issues of negligence and liability. Publisher: Temple University (1982) ASIN: B000737HA6
