The country’s first directed leisure-time program for the aged–conceived on a nation-wide, comprehensive basis–will be undertaken by the National Council of Jewish Women, it was announced today by the national president, Mrs. Irving M. Engel.
This large-scale program, designed to fill the increasing needs of the aged, was formulated by the organization’s National Committee on Community Welfare and approved today by its National Board of Directors, currently in session at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel here. Non-sectarian in nature, the program will unify the 40 existing projects of the Council’s local sections, and will enable all of the organization’s 235 sections and their 93,500 members to participate more fully in this activity.
The Council program recognizes the pressing overall medical and social need to “shorten the period of old age by lengthening the period of the middle years,” since this country is rapidly becoming a nation of older people and since the percentage of men and women over 65 has more than doubled during the past half-century. Included in the program will be extensive training in geriatrics for Council volunteers throughout the country and an integrated plan for creating additional sorvices for the aged, as well as an expanded program of occupational therapy.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
