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2985 Haggerty Road • Walled Lake • (248) 624-1336
Israel Has New Programs
To Care For Frail Elderly
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2985 Haggerty Road • Walled Lake
1/4 mile north of Pontiac Trail
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29520 Northwestern Hwy. • Southfield • 353-4060
WE WISH YOU A NEW YEAR
FILLED WITH GOOD HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!
Lois,
Julie, Kim, Cindy and the rest of the girls at
in the Orchard Mall, West Bloomfield
The mentally frail
bene it rom
day care.
I
n order to meet the needs of
the growing number of Israelis
suffering from Alzheimer's dis-
ease and other types of mental
deterioration (in 1950, only 4 per-
cent of the new nation's population
was over the age of 65, but today
nearly 10 percent are senior citizens),
a number of innovatiye programs
have been introduced into some of
the country's 125 day care centers.
Run by the local authorities,
ESHEL (the branch. of the American
Joint Distribution Committee which
provides Services to the Aged), and
government ministries, many facul-
ties are modeled after Melabev" (a .
Hebrew acronym for Community
Clubs for the Mentally Impaired), a
leader in developing day care for the
mentally frail elderly.
The prevailing tendency in Israel is
for the elderly to remain at home, in
their own familiar communities. For
this reason, multi-service day care
centers are one of the prevalent form
of assistance provided by Israel's
innovative Nursing Law. The
National Insurance Institute initiated
this special benefit for frail and
impaired elderly seven years ago
which makes possible not only day
care, but also professional caregivers,
laundry services, beepers and hot
lunches.
With offices in Shaare Zedek hos-
pital, 15-year-old Melabev (which in
English means "heart-warming"),
operates five day care centers in
Jerusalem founded to provide a thera-
peutic and social framework and to
enhance the quality of life of those
afflicted with Alzheimer's disease or
similar disorders.
This enables family members
to continue their daily activities,
knowing that their loved ones are
receiving excellent care in a support-
ive environment while enjoying stim-
ulating activities like physiotherapy,
occupational therapy, art, music,
movement and dance therapies, and
cooking.
A creative approach most recently
initiated has been the design and use
of a special computer program to
activate patience and stimulate cogni-
tive functions. This project, now
undergoing trials in Melabev's Shaare
Zedek center, was developed by
Elimelech Lange, a computer pro-
grammer, and his wife, Yehudit, a
social worker with Melabev. They
began with two programs: one using
arithmetic computations and one
based on geometric shapes and col-
ors. In both, the patients, via the
computer, work on basic skills (addi-
tion, subtraction, identifying shapes
and colors, etc.) that they may not
have been called upon to use since
the early stages of their illness. Not
only do they seem to retain that
kn owledge form session to session, but
they are learning something new and
modern — the use of a computer.
Day care
in Israel for
seniors.
_Another recent development is
that of a intergenerational program-
ming: Although bringing children
together with the elderly in the day
care centers has been a part of the
Melabev activities for some time, last
year a shiduch was organized between
a Jerusalem elementary school in the
Old City, the state religious school
HaRovah, and the San Simone
Melabev center. That project, now in
its second year, has fifth and sixth
graders attending the Melabev center
weekly, on a rotation basis, to offer a
helping hand and to participate in
the activities there.
Melabev also offers educational
materials to family members and the
use of a library to professionals and
lay caregivers. The library at Melabev
was donated by a grateful family
member. It includes copies of the lat-
est editions of professional books and
journals which report on the most
recent developments in Alzheimer's
research and suggestions on the care
of its victims.
With prevailing tendency in Israel
being to keep Alzheimer's sufferers at
home and the number of aged
expected to grow considerably over
the next few year, patients and their
families need all the help they can
get. The programs of the multi-ser-
vice centers such as Melabev, there-
fore can expect to continue providing
compassionate, responsive and quali-
ty care for many years to come.