CLOSE-UP

Sheldon Imber
recently was
discharged from
Clinton Valley State
Hospital to a
group home.
He wants to live
at the Kadima home.

cause we have people from the com- Kadima, they say, provides en-
munity involved," Watkins says. "It couragement and a welcome Jewish
is better than a lot of homes. environment.
The home is kosher. On Friday
Anytime I see a group that is willing
to provide a better life for somebody, evenings, the residents have special
I feel that the state government has Shabbat meals; on holidays, they
celebrate together.
a responsibility to help.
"I'm not mentally ill," says Gur-
"One of the things I do for my own
mental health is visit Kadima," win, 41, who is schizophrenic."I've
Watkins says. "I like to see our tax just had a few problems like every-
one else."
dollars going to work."
Pointing to scars on her wrists
Despite its financial problems,
Kadima leaders are proud that their from a time about 15 years ago when
program is heightening awareness she broke the windows during a stay
in other communities. It is one of at Clinton Valley State Hospital in
only two fully supervised Jewish Pontiac, Gurwin says living in
adult foster-care homes for seveib Kadima has changed her entire
outlook on life.
mental illnesses.
"I've been in and out of foster-care
The other halfway facility, Glen
Manor, houses eight mentally ill homes and institutions," she says.
adults in Baltimore. Unlike "I'm better now. I would no longer
Kadima, run with government funds hurt myself."
She smiles. "I feel good.
by a private board, Glen Manor is
"I'm divorced. I got married when
administered by Baltimore's Jewish
I was 18," Gurwin recalls. "But now
Family Services.
Kadima is the only Jewish agency I am with my own people — Jewish
working with the Jewish mentally people — and that helps a lot."
Since Kadima began, nine of its
ill in metropolitan Detroit.
"Mental illness can strike residents have moved into private
anybody. You want it to go away apartments. Iwrey says each former
like the flu — but it doesn't," says resident either holds a job or is at-
Janet Aronoff, Kadima's founding tending school.
"We see ourselves moving for-
president and board member. "It has
only just begun to be dealt with on ward," Rhoda Raderman says. "We
the community level. Yet I am teach our clients they can enter the
world and be a part of society. Our
hopeful. Kadima is a miracle."
clients do get better and they do
isi Davis calls her housemates move on."
Clients, ranging in age from 20 to
to dinner. Afterward, she and
Andrea Gurwin will take ad- 44, are expected to be out of the
vantage of the unseasonably warm house during the day for voluntary
day in April for a walk to a nearb y or paid jobs, classes or treatment
frozen yogurt shop.
Gurwin will load the dishwasher
in the kitchen after the walk.
Everybody is home; Scott is wat- Kadima provides
ching Channel 7 news while waiting encouragement and a
for his relatives to pick him up for welcome Jewish
environment.
dinner.
Some of the residents just returned
to the foster-care home from a day at
the Suburban Oakland Life
Enrichment Center, where they programs. They take turns doing the
take classes and work. Others hold dishes and share cooking, cleaning
and grocery shopping chores.
volunteer jobs.
Avraham, who is diagnosed as
Avraham works with Alzheimer's
schizophrenic,
must take out the
patients. Davis reads to, writes for
trash
this
week.
It's his least favor-
and visits with the elderly at the
Lahser Hills Nursing Home. Gurwin ite task.
"I'm independent. I feel solitude,"
does clerical work at Prentis Manor.
Avraham
says. "All of my friends
Before they came to Kadima, most
are
in
the
Yeshiva and I'm here. I
of the six residents spent years shuf-
fling between state hospitals, group want to live an Orthodox lifestyle."
He would rather live in a group
dwellings, homes of relatives and
home
in New York, where there is a
private health-care facilities.

R

28

FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1990

more pronounced Orthodox com-
munity. But he is grateful for
Kadima and says it is far better than'
the other local hospitals where he
has stayed.
"Here I can sleep, eat and go out-
side whenever I want," Avraham
says. "I'd be really happy if I could
have a good vacation in Israel."
Avraham, 20, says he has been
sick for two years. He prefers to talk
about his future, dismissing details
of his medical history.
"I just got sick," Avraham says.
"But I am medicated for it."
Immediate plans for Avraham in-
clude completing courses to secure
his high school diploma. Then he
wants to get a job, possibly as a stock
boy in a store. The son of an ordain-
ed rabbi, Avraham wants to study
Judaism.
"I want to study and work and live
in my own apartment," he says.
Kadima recently got a financial
boost of $30,000 from the Max M.
Fisher Jewish Community Founda-
tion, which disburses funds through
the Jewish Welfare Federation.
Through the grant, Kadima group

home and apartment residents are
able to use Michigan Rehabilitation
Services and Jewish Vocational Ser-
vice for job counseling and place-
ment.
Gurwin is preparing to work as a
dishwasher at a restaurant and
Davis hopes to begin interviewing
for jobs, although she isn't yet sure
what kind of work to pursue. She is
interested in day programs for the
elderly and word processing.
"I take one day at a time," says
Davis, who speaks openly of her
schizophrenia. "I have trouble mak-
ing up my mind. It's part of my prob-
lem. I do know that eventually I
want to go back to school."
Davis was a 19-year-old student at
the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor when she started having prob-
lems.
"I rushed a sorority, was on the
crew team, was a full-time student,"
she recalls. "I couldn't fit it all in
and started dropping things grad-
ually.
Soon after, Davis left U-M, opting