Officials of the Jewish Family Service have announced plans for a program to locate isolated elderly Jews in Toledo and to provide them with services they are presumably not getting because of their isolation. In announcing plans for “Operation Outreach,” the JFS officials said the project was based on the premise that elderly persons should be helped to stay in their own homes as long as possible.
They said that the problems of the elderly person may not be financial but rather loneliness and the need for help with physical and related problems. Such persons, they said, may be getting inadequate medical care and meals because they may not be able to provide these requirements for themselves. The officials reported that they had already found a few such elderly persons who needed help and urged Toledo Jews to help locate others.
The new program will include three forms of help, the officials said. One will be casework for aged Jews needing social, health or financial assistance. Another is a friendly visitor service to be provided by JFS volunteers. Their assignment will be to visit such Jews regularly, help them with their shopping, take them to their doctors and help them participate in social activities for older persons. The third is a “Meals on Wheels” program in which JFS volunteers will deliver prepared dinners three to five days a week at a small charge to the elderly Jews.
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.
