At the best of times, caregiving involves a certain amount of stress, but often, the anxiety is compounded when there are many miles between the caregiver and care recipient.
With the number of Jewish elderly expected to soar over the coming decade, leaders at the national and local levels realize they must move beyond traditional methods of caring for the elderly to develop new plans and policies.
Imagine you are 90 years old and the world you once knew, even your own home, feels like a frightening and unfamiliar place. Sometimes you find it hard to recognize even your closest family members. You don\’t understand why people get angry when you wander away or when you cannot finish a sentence. You may be fit physically, but psychologically you are at a loss — and so are your family and friends. Imagine you move to a small, lovely village. There are strangers there, but they are gentle and caring. There are places to walk, and no one gets angry if you get a little lost. They just calmly lead you back to where you need to be. When you are in the mood, there is plenty to do, but no one gets angry when you just want to sit. Best of all, your family doesn\’t seem so worried anymore. This scenario is the aim of the new Goldenberg-Ziman Special Care Center located at the Jewish Home for the Aging\’s Eisenberg Campus in Tarzana.
Marshall Sosson, concertmaster at many Hollywood studios, died on April 29, 2002, at the age of 91.
In a corner of the brightly lit dining hall of the Eisenberg Village campus at the Jewish Home for the Aging sit The Three Wise Guys. These three men — Ellis Simon, 77; Hy \”Spike\” Spikell, 93, and Jules Berlinsky, 90 — have formed a friendship so strong that they rate having their own table, No. 56, and they are not the least bit shy about telling you why they love living at the Jewish Home.
It seemed like a good idea on paper: affordable housing for 300 Jewish senior citizens in the heart of Santa Monica.
Sitting in her seat at the Max Factor Family Foundation Recreation Center of the Jewish Home for the Aging (JHA), 103-year-old Sylvia Harmatz cannot recall the first state to give women the right to vote. But, she remembers very clearly the first day she voted, in 1936. \”I wasn\’t a citizen until I married my husband, and so I used his papers and got a ballot so I could vote for [Franklin D.] Roosevelt,\” she said. \”I was very active in politics from that time on.\”
I don\’t know whether it\’s better diet, more exercise, or just to spite the next generation that has to pay for our Medicare, but people not only live longer but enjoy life more than even one or two generations ago.
In the United States alone, researchers at six major medical centers have found that weight lifting and other forms of exercise can literally turn back the clock.
Program coordinator Mike Stifel attributes the Eichenbaum Center\’s popularity to referrals from local hospitals and \”an increasing awareness among older adults that exercise can help them live not just longer, but better.\”
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