Local Briefly: Social work student receives grant to study baby boomers

Kristie Kimbell, a UT social work Ph.D. student, received a $50,000 fellowship this week to study how baby boomers are planning for long-term health care.

The Hartford Foundation, which funds the fellowship, works to promote health care for older Americans, according to its Web site.

Preparing for one’s future medical treatments is of vital importance, Kimbell said.

“I worked in health care for about eight years, in hospitals primarily, and was constantly struck by how few people had done any planning prior to emergency situations or critical situations,” she said.

The economy makes the study especially timely, said social work professor Namkee Choi, who chairs Kimbell’s dissertation.

“People have been putting it off — all of us, even the wealthy,” she said.

By the year 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older, and the current medical system is not expected to be able to handle such an influx of patients, Kimbell said.

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