Community

Spirituality

Clockwise from top:
Caring Partners participant
Dr. Julius Barr plays for the
Chanukah party.

Participant Esther Graff
lights the menorah alongside
program assistant Joe
Greenfield, left,- and director
Peter Ostrow, center.

Music Therapist Gail
Greenberg schmoozing with
participant Sam Platt of
Southfield.

Joinin her husband Sam
Platt or Chanukah festivi-
ties, Belle Platt watches as
great-grandson Noah Adler
tries the latkes.

Caring Partners marks its e orts for
seniors with dementia at Chanukah party.

SHARON LUCKERMAN

Editorial Assistant

T

o begin the Caring Partners
Chanukah festivities, Dr.
Julian Barr, a retired dentist
of 50 years as well as com-
munity orchestra veteran, is coaxed to
play "Hatilcvah" on his violin.
His bow strikes the first few notes of
Israel's national anthem, then he breaks
into a beautiful improvisation of an old
Yiddish melody. Voices rise around the
room singing the familiar words. A child
shakes a tambourine and music therapist
Gail Greenberg accompanies Barr on
the piano.
More than 35 people, including par-
ticipants like Dr. Barr, who have
Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia,

1/5
2001

50

gather with their families around festive
tables at the Dorothy and Peter Brown
Center in the Jewish Vocational Service
(JVS) Building in Southfield on Dec.
20. Large decorative dreidels and
snowflakes sway overhead as the music
continues and staff-and volunteers pass
out generous plates of cookies and latkes.
"This program is so important to us,"
says Gladys Barr, Julius' wife. "Nobody
should be afraid to participate in it."
A non-sectarian adult day care pro-
gram, Caring Partners is the joint effort
of the JVS and Jewish Home and Aging
Services that provides enrichment activi-
ties for seniors with dementia. It also
includes support groups and training
sessions for caregivers.
Caring Partners began in May 1999.
According to Director Peter Ostrow, a

second site is located on the Eugene and
Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community
Campus in West Bloomfield.

Dignity First

Before the holiday songs continue, sev-
eral participant's are escorted up to light
the candles on the menorah. All join in
saying the blessings.
"This program keeps my sanity
whole," says Sylvia Goodman of
Franklin, as her husband Nathan, a pro-
gram participant for 1'/2 years, lights a
candle. "The staff and other caregivers
here are the most caring, most giving,
most sharing people I have ever met.
They treat the people here with dignity."
Alzheimer's, she says, is the worst
thing that can happen to someone. "You
cannot imagine how bad it is."

Later, at the sound of
"I Have a Little Dreidel"
on the piano, a smile rises
to Sylvia's face. She joins
in the singing while her
husband eats latkes and
the Chanukah candles
burn low.
Elaine Sabbota of
Southfield shares in
praising Caring
Partners: "The program
gives my father [Sam
Platt] something to
do."
"And he goes willingly," says Sam's
wife Belle Platt. Four generations of the
Platt family are represented at the table,
the youngest are 3-year-old twin great-
grandchildren, Alyssa and Noah Adler
of Southfield.
When the last songs in the holiday
songbooks are sung, and the slices of
chocolate torte eaten, the participants
and their families prepare to leave.
Caregivers hug and share a few com-
forting words.
"I put one foot in front of the other,"
says Gladys Barr, when asked how she
copes. "You can't stop to think about it.
We do what we have to do to get by.
But this program keeps me centered,
and the people here are marvelous."
Before the guests leave, the staff has
one more surprise. Each family receives
a photo-album with several pages of pic-
tures of their loved one and others in
the program on various outings they
went on over the past year.
Thumbing through her album,
Gladys says with delight, "My children
are going to love this." ❑

