At age 75, Ida Klein fulfilled her life-long dream of moving
to Israel. Although her husband of 50 years, had died a few
years earlier, Ida longed to fulfill the dream they had
shared and nurtured for so long. In spite of her children's
pleading and reservations, she moved to a beautiful
Jerusalem apartment overlooking the Sherover Promenade in
Talpiot. Everything was going well until a few months after
her arrival, when she fell and broke her hip. Beside not
being able to summon help for some time, after she was
released from the hospital, she had no idea how she would
manage by herself. Her family in the U.S. was very
apprehensive and did not know how to help her, short of
putting her in a home, which she adamantly opposed.
Fortunately for Mrs. Klein and her family, one of the social
workers that met with her at the hospital was familiar with
Senior Services Plus International (SSPI), a geriatric care
management agency recently formed concurrently in Israel and
Baltimore, Maryland, in the U.S. SSPI was tailor-made for
the Kleins, as well as many golden age seniors and retirees
currently living in Israel without their children, friends
and extended family. As Israel's first and as yet only,
geriatric care-management agency, SSPI will arrange
everything from home-delivered meals to medical care to
property management to financial advisory services to
periodic visits for companionship.
The idea came about when Dr. Bruce Markowitz, an Efrat
resident and 1992 oleh, needed to arrange similar care for
his ailing parents in the New York area. Such services were
available all over the U.S. However, when he looked into the
availability of such services in Israel, he was surprised to
find that nothing existed.
Markowitz filled the void by founding SSPI with the advice
and assistance of the late Marvin Schreiber, a well-known
geriatric social worker who had been a personal care
management consultant for about ten years in Israel. They
assembled a well-respected, qualified and experienced roster
of affiliated care givers, and the calls started coming.
Usually, the first thing required is a visit by a social
worker who can meet with the individual in the home to
personally assess the situation. As Dr. Yoel Isenberg, one
of the Agency's consulting physicians, said: "One can glean
a wealth of information about the situation of an elderly
person living alone from an on-site visit, where he or she
can really see how the person functions in his or her
environment."
After meeting and evaluating a client, an SSPI geriatric
social worker is able to arrange and oversee an array of
home care services, such as home delivered meals, a friendly
visit on a daily or weekly basis, and will arrange an
emergency call system, as well as regular visits and calls
from the social worker.
SSPI's goal is to enable people to stay comfortably and
safely in their home for as long as possible. The key is
being able to arrange the services the people need to do
that. Those services can be anything from setting up regular
phone calls from community volunteers to full time nursing
care, hiring in-home nursing care on a full- or part-time
basis, seeing to it that the client receives timely and
regular medical examinations, arranging transportation to
checkups or to the local senior center and/or ensuring that
bills are paid.
Based on the assessment and discussions with the family and
the individual, a care management program is devised which
will allow the elderly parent or relative to live a
relatively carefree life in their own home, and give the
family abroad the peace of mind of knowing that someone is
always available to care for their relative's needs and to
update them on the situation. Eventually, SSPI hope that
relatives connected to the situation will be able to log on
to the company's web site and, with the use of a PIN number,
access the most recent reports about their relative.
Now based in Baltimore, Maryland, Markowitz is coordinating
the agency's efforts in the U.S. David Resnick, a U.S. and
Israel licensed attorney is coordinating the agency's
services in Israel. The core group of affiliated consultants
he and Markowitz galvanized remains committed to providing
professional, compassionate care to Western olim, on a
level they had been accustomed to in their native lands.
To contact Senior Services Plus International, in Israel
call David Resnick at 02-654-0794 or 058 719 084, or by
email at info@seniorservicesplus.com. Visit their web site
at www.seniorservicesplus.com. In the U.S., call 800-508-
1314.
