June Simmons, MSW '70, was aggravated by the immorality and inefficiency of the nation's health care system. But instead of complaining, she turned her frustration into action, and at age 55, established the Partners in Care Foundation to devise new ways of delivering health care. Eight years later, not only has her organization grown tenfold, but she's gaining even more repute as a finalist for The Purpose Prize, which honors social entrepreneurs in their second half of life who are marshalling their accumulated experience to address critical social problems.

Simmons was one of 15 winners of the first-ever Purpose Prize, a major new initiative to invest in Americans over 60 who are leading a new age of social innovation. Civic Ventures, the San Francisco-based think tank responsible for channeling funds to these new pioneers, awarded her $10,000 to honor her outstanding achievements and serve as a down payment on future creativity and action toward solving America's most important issues.

Changing the Shape of Health Care

Over the two decades Simmons worked as a social worker and hospital administrator, she saw a lot that's right about health care and a lot that isn't.

"Relative to other countries, we spend huge amounts of money on health care, but our outcomes rank 37th in the world," she said. "We won't spend money helping you avoid a stroke or a fall or complications from diabetes. We'll wait until you're almost dead, then we'll pay for care."

Partners in Care is currently working with more than two dozen local universities, hospitals, social service agencies and public organizations on more than 46 projects that tackle everything from helping older adults manage complicated medication regimens to getting health care to the working poor. The foundation looks for health care system failures that affect a lot of people and can be corrected with incremental, common-sense changes. The result is a mix of research, development and an effort to expand the application of effective approaches to a broader population.

The foundation has worked in partnership with other organizations to train more social workers to work with the elderly, place retired doctors and nurses in existing clinics to treat the uninsured, and adapt a medications management program that reduces life-threatening errors. It also created a high-quality, cost-saving program to provide home care for dying patients, which was adopted throughout the Kaiser Permanente system.

"The reality is that we're not going to be able to ask the government for a whole new health care system," Simmons says, "so our idea is to redirect the money that's already there."

Civic Ventures will award The Purpose Prize in increments of five $100,000 and 10 $10,000 investments annually for three years to exceptional older adults, helping stimulate opportunities for them to use their talents to advance the greater good.

-Additional reporting courtesy of Civic Ventures