![[JH@H Logo]](images/jhah01.jpg)
The vision to provide comprehensive services for older adults and their families living in the community has been a topic of discussion among the Jewish Home Family board members for years. Following the success of the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, Gallen Adult Day Health Care Center, Jewish Home Assisted Living and the Kosher Meals-on-Wheels program, it was time to seriously plan for implementation of this additional service. On November 17, 2009, the Board of Directors of the Jewish Home Family voted to establish a new entity, the Jewish Home at Home (JH@H) and allocated $307,000 for funding during 2010.
The core service of JH@H is geriatric care management. A geriatric care manager is a licensed social worker or nurse who assesses medical, psychosocial and resource/entitlement status; establishes a plan of care; makes referrals for necessary services; and provides on-going monitoring and evaluation, crisis management and education. A geriatric care manager works with an array of for-profit and not-for-profit agencies to provide the best services tailored to the needs of the client and family.
The Jewish Home at Home is a fee-for-service program. In keeping with our tradition, Jewish Home Family has made a commitment to provide subsidized care to 25% of the client base who demonstrate financial need. The current JH@H committee members will become the first Board of Directors: Chuck Berkowitz, Carl Epstein, Ary Freilich, Dr. Harvey Gross, Gary Hirschberg, Risa Kory, Lauren Levant, Susan Lilly, Maxine Peckar, Robert Peckar, Pearl Seiden and Eli Ungar. Other potential board members will be recruited as the program develops. JH@H was incorporated as a 501(C)3 organization in the State of New Jersey.
JH@H will collaborate with known private and non-profit service providers of the highest caliber to implement the plan of care. JH@H will have expertise in all relevant Federal, State and County programs.
The Jewish Home Family reached out to our sister agency, Jewish Family Services, in order to build our organizational ties, and avoid any duplication of services or waste of resources. We have had several meetings with professional staff and board members of Jewish Family Services to develop a Memorandum of Understanding that will incorporate the skill sets and strengths of JFS staff as applied to the goals of JH@H. The proposal was presented to the JFS Executive Board by Ilene Gelman, President and Lisa Fedder, Executive Director on February 8, 2010.
We have installed a specialized geriatric care management software package (CareComplete) and scheduled in-depth training sessions. Debbie Barnett of Barnett Design, Inc. has been engaged to develop our logo, marketing materials and stationery design.
As Director of Social Services at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, I will continue to oversee the Social Services Department, though my new role as Director of Geriatric Care Management at JH@H will be my primary challenge. As Director of Geriatric Care Management, I bring training and credentials as an Advanced Certified Social Work Care Manager with direct experience in the field.
The Jewish Home at Home presents an extraordinary opportunity to broaden the reach of the Jewish Home Family and meet the objective as stated in the Jewish Home Family’s Strategic Plan – we should strive to develop new, and upgrade existing, services that will enhance the quality of life of our growing elderly, frail and infirmed population and enable them to age in place, in their home, for as long a time as possible.