Message from our Executive Vice President

Jewish Community Hospice Program

The Jewish Home at Rockleigh has joined with Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in a partnership, under the auspices of their Home Health Services Department, to provide support and comfort to terminally ill individuals and their families. The team approach is emphasized in providing care to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patient and family.

The goals of the Jewish Community Hospice Program (JCHP) are to allow members of our Jewish community and their families to remain at home together for as long as possible. The program will provide a unique type of care, designed to maintain maximum symptom and pain control, while improving the patient’s quality of life and time with their loved ones. The difference in this effort will be the availability of the Jewish Home’s Jewish Hospice Chaplain, Rabbi Nathan Langer, who is certified in Hospice Care, and has had many years of experience in this scope of work. Rabbi Langer will work together with hospice staff who have been well trained in Jewish customs, to ensure a level of comfort that Jewish traditions and laws will be upheld and respected. The hospice team consists of a physician, registered nurse, social worker and hospice aide. Together with volunteers, a physical therapist and nutritionist, the team will support the patient and family in the comfort of a home setting.

In concert with the recent partnership, the resources of the JCHP have expanded to enable us to offer adult medical day care, transportation and kosher meals to home care patients and families. The meals are under the supervision of RCBC.

The JCHP will be available to all Bergen County communities. If, at some point, patient care cannot be provided in a home setting, inpatient care may be provided at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh with financial consideration.

In addition to the traditional services such as skilled nursing care, JCHP provides, on a part time basis, 24 hour on-call service for questions and problems, hospice aides, medical equipment and supplies, and medication for symptom management. Rabbi Langer will provide bereavement follow-up in the community to the family members.

This program is approved for Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross and other private insurances. Recognizing that the Hospice patients and families have unique needs, individualized consideration will be given to all patients. No patient will be denied Hospice care due to his/her inability to pay, and private pay fees will be adjusted accordingly.

The success of this program will be, in part, dependent on the financial generosity of the community and on the volunteer spirit of individuals supportive of Jewish Hospice philosophy. If you wish to make a tax deductible contribution to the Jewish Community Hospice Program, contact either the Jewish Home Foundation of North Jersey at 201-750-4231, or the Jewish Community Hospice at EHMC at 201-894-3333. These funds will be dedicated for the support of this Program.

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