By Dr. Babette Becker
Psychotherapist, Geriatric Care Manager, Writer

Introduction

I visited Cuba for 18 days to learn about the physical and mental health care and the response to the social and familial needs of the elderly. As a practicing psychotherapist and geriatric care manager in New York City, this trip was to be a preliminary attempt to see what I could learn, with whom I might be able to talk, and what sites I would be given permission to visit.

I put together a list of questions that I hoped would be flexible enough to include the range of health care professionals I wanted to interview and/or the sites I hoped to visit. My next task was to find out whom I had to see to secure the permission(s). Once I started interviewing, I revised my list of questions a few times to more appropriately reflect the Cuban health care system as I learned more about it.