This episode is dedicated to Dr. Fethke’s father, Walter P. Fethke, in remembrance of the honorable struggle he underwent along with his loving family in the last years and days of his remarkable life.
In Episode 30 of The Pursuit of Health Podcast, our host, Dr. Fethke, once again reaches across artificial boundaries to a colleague in the legal profession. His guest, Louis Pierro is an esteemed lawyer based in New York State with over 40 years experience in the field of Elder Law. After attending college at Lehigh University and obtaining his law degree at Albany Law School, Mr. Pierro went on to become one of the pioneers in the field of Elder Law. He shares his own personal motivations for shifting his focus from the court rooms to working with people to help make their lives better. With his colleagues, he founded Pierro, Connnor & Strauss, a law firm dedicated to estate planning and elder law. Over the years his team has extended their services beyond the New York Capital region to now encompass New York City, Florida, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Along the way he has joined policymakers and other stakeholders in addressing the issues of aging that have overwhelmed our nation and that we all will inevitably face. This has included his founding the Elder Counsel, a national membership organization of Elder Law and Special Needs law firms that supports the efforts of over 1400 firms amongst all 50 states.He also founded ApolloCare, LLC, a business venture that combines home-based Elder Care (EverHome Care Advisors) with high technology centered in peoples’ homes (VivaLynx).
During this episode, beginning with the mission set by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, Mr. Pierro takes us through the history of America’s struggle to provide humane and high quality care services for our senior citizens. He takes us through the many forms that this journey has assumed including a clear explanation of nursing home, assisted living and home-based care models. He pulls no punches in identifying the past and current hurdles that have hindered America’s progress and left us with an overwhelmingly complex and often daunting system to deal with the ever increasing issues facing a growing population of elderly.
Despite the challenges, we are so fortunate that Mr. Pierro and his colleagues continue to fight the good fight and take an offensive approach to addressing Aging in America. Through regular education, advocacy and creative business models, they have clearly begun to break through the dark clouds and let some much needed light into this vital issue that involves us all. He stresses that the task at hand is too complex and important for any one profession to deal with. Any effective effort must be a team approach with the patient truly at the center and caretakers, including, but not exclusively involving, the physicians. He adds, “Hopefully, one household at a time, we will build a consensus that will change and improve the way we care for each other as we get older.”
We look forward to your feedback and comments regarding this and any other episodes of The Pursuit of Health Podcast. We look forward to inviting back guests such as Mr. Pierro to keep up with his progress. We can be reached at drfethkemd on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as our website at drfethkemd.com.
Resources:
Pierro, Connor & Strauss, LLC - www.pierrolaw.com
EverCare - Everhomecareadvisors.com
VivaLynx - Vivalynx.com
Follow me on Instagram and Facebook @ericfethkemd and checkout my website at www.EricFethkeMD.com.
My brand new book, The Privilege of Caring, is out now on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CP6H6QN4