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A new era in aging
By Liz Rabiner Lippoff
Helen Goldhammer was living alone in her Hillsdale
condominium, doing just fine, says her daughter Carol Levy. Last
July, though, Helen had a mild stroke and moved to the Robison
Jewish Health Center for rehabilitation. She had a room of her own
and, Carol says, “a team of very caring people” who helped Helen
recover well enough to the point where she was finally told that, even
though she couldn’t do much on her own, she could live at home.
“Mom has always valued her household time and her
independence,” says Carol. “She figured if she needed full-time care,
and we would be providing it wherever she lived anyway, she could
choose to be back at home.” Today Helen is still frail and needs a
lot of help with personal services, but she has improved a great deal
over the last year.
The key to her health and safety is the 24/7 care she gets from
Sinai Family Home Services. Started in 2008 with the support of
Jewish Family and Child Services and Cedar Sinai Park, the nonprofit
took a couple of years to establish its reputation in the community,
according to Executive Director Jack Honey. Today they are very busy,
offering three levels of care ranging from homemaker/companion
services to complex care with nurse oversight.
Jack believes the reason for their growth is that they take the
approach of “client-centered services.” Carol Levy would agree.
“Mom’s caregivers are competent, but they also make an attempt
to be good companions to her. They go with her everywhere, so it’s
good that they are integrated into the family.”
Helen Goldhammer is 98.
David Molko is a senior outreach therapist and counselor at
JFCS in Portland, and he says times are changing. Seniors are living
longer, which is great, he says. However, that presents issues:
“A lot of folks run through their money and can’t maintain their
lifestyle. There can be tension between parents and adult children
who, more often than not, are still dealing with the complexities of
raising their own families.
From a medical standpoint, we’ve done a good job of
enhancing age. We’ve come up with fabulous drugs and other
ways of extending life. I’m not sure we’ve always addressed the
psychological and emotional needs of people living into their 90s
and older. We haven’t had to before.
Our elders are now living with chronic diseases as they live
longer... that raise the conflicting issue: living longer versus quality
of life.”
Helen Goldhammer’s story is familiar to him: At JFCS, David
works with the whole family – in one or two sessions or even over
years – to get a road map for the future, a plan they can all agree on
that makes the transition into the older years easier for all involved.
And in increasing numbers, people are not moving into facilities.
They are staying at home if at all possible, for as long as possible.
Hence, the explosion of home health and other services.
JFCS Executive Director Marian Fenimore is optimistic about
some of the innovation and collaboration that can keep people
at home, keep them healthier and cut costs at the same time.
Governor Kitzhaber, for example, has put together reforms that allow
Medicaid to pay for additional services to enable people to get what
they need so they don’t have to get so desperately sick.
With the help of
caregivers, including
Juline Machus, Helen
Goldhammer was able
to return to her own
home after a mild stroke
and a stay at Robison
Jewish Health Center for
rehabilitation.
Experts across the state agree there will always be a need for
residential care for seniors, but that the emphasis has changed. We
need to encompass a continuum of care that includes a new model
of residential care, but with increased emphasis on housing with
services and on services provided in private homes.
Kimberly Fuson was recently named chief operating officer of
CSP, the Portland organization whose programs run the gamut from
adult day services to assisted living to nursing care at the Robison
Jewish Health Center. She says the most important services for
seniors are quickly becoming home care and inpatient or outpatient
physical, occupational and speech therapy.
“Nursing homes and the rest of long-term care is going through
a significant change: most people want to be home first, and at all
costs. This means that, while nursing homes once provided a lot
of palliative long-term care, they will now be primarily focused on
short-term rehabilitation,” Kimberly says.
“We are making the difficult decisions so that we can meet
the changing needs of the Jewish community. People will need an
excellent place to stay, and we want to be that place, recognizing
that a growing percentage of today’s and tomorrow’s residents will
be here short term and then will go back home.”
Sinai Family Home Services, Adult Day Services and outpatient
rehabilitation are all in place. “We are looking at enhancing our
community-based services and exploring options like private
case management, Jewish meals on wheels, a Jewish health and
wellness center. All smart ideas are on the table,” Kimberly believes.
Kimberly also envisions a system where, once you use Cedar
Sinai Park in any context, you are “in” and can access the various
CSP and even community services as you need them, where you
need them and seamlessly.
“Maybe the story is about people,” Kimberly says, “not about
walls. How do you take care of people where they want to be”
Carol Brooker-Bardner is RN administrator and president of
two Roseburg companies that grew out of people’s desire to stay
at home. The first is Home Helpers, which she and her husband
opened in 2009. It provides comprehensive in-home care. Carol says
they now have 100 clients and 95 caregivers; they provide 2,000
hours of service a week in individual homes.
The second business is Ralph & Millie’s Adult Day Retreat, and
it is the only one of its kind in Roseburg. Similar to CSP’s Adult
Day Services, it is an interactive daily community for people with
dementia and other mental acuity issues. With mental activities,
physical exercise and occupational therapy, it is, she says, “a safe
place to bring your loved ones so you can take a breath.”
“People want to live at home and their children are listening,”
Carol says. “But we talk with kids who worry their parents aren’t
safe. We check that the burners are off.” In her crystal ball, she sees
in-home and foster care “exploding.”
54 2013-2014 RESOURCE GUIDE | OREGON JEWISH LIFE