“By every index–money, health, housing, employment, education and recreational opportunity, and social adjustment–one-third of New York’s 250, 000 aged Jews are in dire trouble.”
Such is the assertion made by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York in a massive study issued today by Lawrence A. When, president, and Richman Proskauer, vice-president and study chairman. Entitled “The Jewish Aged of New York–Their Present and Future, ” the two-year research is described as “the first fully comprehensive approach to the needs of Jewish aged ever made.” To meet their needs. Federation proposes immediate objectives:
1. A new 500-bed hospital for the long-term senile and chronic sick aged at a cost of $6, 250,000, funds for which are being sought by Federation’s Building Fund.
2. Relocation of the existing 350-bed Home and Hospital of the Daughters of Israel to the vicinity of Hillside and Long Island Jewish Hospitals to create the first complex of geriatric, psychiatric and medical institution in the United States. The Building Fund seeks $4,500,000 for this project.
3. Establishment of a $500,000 camp for the elderly, to offer vacation opportunities to some 2,500 persons annually.
In addition to the immediate $11,250,000 currently sought, Federation says that long-term objectives for the aged would cost many millions more. These include; creation of a second $6,250,000 500-bed hospital; conversion of over 2,500 beds from present domiciliary use to use in active programs for the chronic sick; organization of hospital out-patient units to serve 1,000 aged annually, and establishment of mental health, placement and guidance, family service and home care and other units to serve from 1,000 to 10,000 persons each year.
“Despite the high priority given building new and extending present physical facilities, all problems of the aged cannot be solved by increased domiciliary institutional resources,” the Federation report stresses. “The concept that many older people prefer and can continue to live in their own homes for longer periods of time, who provided with supporting social, homemaker and health services, merits recognition at all planning levels.”
Specifically, the Federation program calls here for expanded units for service to aged at family agencies to serve at least 10, 000 annually, establishment of coordinated medical and homemaker services in the community to serve, with municipal aid, 1,000 annually; provision of minimum care quarters, for those who do not require institutionalization but for whom assurance of care must be offered, and creation of “later years” education programs for families and leaders. For these projects, immediate study is proposed to be followed by gradual development within one, three, or five-year periods.
The Federation also announced that the aged study had resulted in two major gifts to create intensive programs for aged persons which will enable them to live in the community by assuring adequate medical, social service and recreational assistance. The Henrietta and Stuard Hirschman Foundation gave $1,000,000 and the Isabella Freedman Foundation $200, 000 to establish this program.
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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.
