I Opinion

OTHER VIEWS

Esther Needs Our Help

N

ational leaders have
long known that the
American Jewish
population is getting older. Now,
because of the new population
study, Detroit leaders know that
we are graying faster than any
Jewish community outside the
Sunbelt.
That's why now is the time to
address the needs of the most
vulnerable of our older adults,
people like Esther.
Esther is an elderly Jewish
widow who has no family, lives
alone and is terminally ill. Cancer
has spread throughout her body,
and doctors have told her to pre-
pare to die.
Although Esther is terminally
ill, she is not eligible for hospice
care because she continues to
receive alternative therapies and
is expected to live for up to two
years. Her friends have rallied to
her side, but she requires more
assistance than they can offer.
Like so many people living in
the U.S., Esther has fallen through
the cracks of our nation's health-
care system.
Esther deserves better than
this, and she shouldn't have to go
through this difficult time alone.
We need to mobilize our Jewish

community to improve care for
our members at the end of their
lives. To do so, we must embrace
a relatively new concept called
"palliative car' Palliative care is a
field of medicine that focuses on
pain control and symptom man-
agement treatment for patients
not ready for hospice but who
could benefit greatly from similar
comprehensive services.
While modern medicine is the
reason that Esther is still alive,
there is nothing anyone can do at
this point to cure her disease. We
can only help manage her pain
and symptoms.
Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy
Network (JHCN) is doing its best
to make palliative services acces-
sible to Jewish end-of-life patients
like Esther who request it. Yet
limited resources have prevented
most of them from receiving the
full spectrum of services such as
spiritual care, volunteers, friendly
visitors, grief support, translation
services and patient advocacy.

Stepping Up

As members of Detroit's Jewish
community, you are well known
for continuous leadership in
health care. You helped JHCN take
the lead in the nation when we

created a Jewish hospice network
six years ago. You have also taken
the lead in providing for the
uninsured through Jewish Family
Service's innovative Project
Chessed program. Many of your
parents and grandparents started
Sinai. Hospital, the Sinai Guild
and the Jewish Fund to guarantee
superior health care for all of our
members.
Now we are calling upon you
to help us meet another dire need
for terminally ill Jewish commu-
nity members who are not ready,
or do not qualify for hospice.
You can help us by embracing an
organized Jewish-sponsored pal-
liative care model.
St. John Health Care System,
Beaumont Hospital, Henry Ford
Health Care System and Detroit
Medical Center have all recently
started hospital-based palliative
care programs. They know what
our community has done to sup-
port and expand their hospice
programs. They now are looking
for us to take the lead and to
create a strong Jewish support
network for their Jewish palliative
care patients as well.
The new population study
shows that our community is
the oldest Jewish community

outside the Sunbelt.
tional and spiritual well
Today, with nearly
being at the end of life.
24 percent of our
While our hospice
community at 65 or
services have become
older, and 14 per-
the model for Jewish
cent age 75 or older,
presence at the end
thousands of our
of life throughout the
community's elderly
U.S., we are a long way
will need compre-
from being the model
hensive medical care
for Jewish presence
Rabbi E.B. "Bunny"
at the end of life.
before
hospice enters
Freedman
The goal, of
a
patient's
room. We
Community View
course, is not to cure,
need to change that by
but to provide compassionate spe- filling this gap in services.
cialized care for the terminally ill.
To date, Jewish Hospice and
We need to focus on the quality of Chaplaincy Network has pro-
their lives, not on their imminent
vided only minimal assistance to
death.
non-hospice patients, like Esther,
With this program in place,
that are suffering from cancer or
every terminally ill patient,
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease
regardless if they are eligible for
or chronic heart disease and
hospice care or not, will have the
require extensive palliative care
loving support of an exceptionally services. That has to change. We
dedicated team of professionals
owe it to Esther and hundreds of
sponsored by the Jewish com-
frail and elderly like her.
munity. These people understand
Together, we have a unique
the disease process and will treat
opportunity to lead the future of
every Jewish patient as if they
palliative care. Together, we can
were family.
ensure that no Jew is ever alone
It is our responsibility to make
at the end of life.
sure terminal. patients get friendly
visitors, social workers and clergy
Rabbi Freedman is director of
from a comprehensive palliative
the Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy
care system that focuses on a
Network in West Bloomfield.
patient's medical as well as emo-

Israeli Mother's Perspective

Mevasseret Zion, Israel

A

-

fter almost 25 years
living in Israel, this is
the first war in which
not only do I have a son in the
army, but also most of the soldiers
are my son's age, my son's friends
and schoolmates, the sons of my
friends.
My son graduated from tank
training school in the first days of
the war and was home on sched-
uled leave for the first week. Still,
I am just as nervous and anxious
about those other kids who are
out there on the front lines.
I feel that same pain in my
stomach, the same fear about
watching the news, and yet the
inability to shut it off. Every time
they announce another soldier
wounded or killed, it tears me
apart. Mickey, 19, is now back at

30 August 3 2006

his tank corps base, ready to do
what the army asks.
This morning, I drove my
daughter, Jenny, into Jerusalem to
the army office for her first call up.
(Jenny, 17, begins her senior year
in high school in the fall and dur-
ing that year all Israeli kids have
periodic pre-army service brief-
ings and events.)
Driving home, I noticed a huge
sign that someone had hand
painted and hung near the bus
stop leaving town. The sign read,
"Soldier, Thank you for protecting
us." I cried.
Perhaps the way that the
country pulls together during
times like these is also making
me mushy. Everyone is taking in
families from the north. Everyone
is making packages to send to
soldiers and to kids in bomb

shelters. Everyone is
On the other hand,
donating, volunteering,
they feel so strongly
supporting and pulling
about their country
together.
Even more, they
Many books have
feel so close to their
been written about the
friends that they can't
Israeli soldier during
bear the thought of
our many wars. Now I
not being together in
Elizabeth Levy
see it very personally,
times like these.
Special
very close up, when
It's as if we finally
Commentary
these wonderful young
see that the education
men and women
we worked so hard to
express pride for their part in the
give them — at home, in school,
struggle to protect the country.
in scouts — has really sunk in.
Their camaraderie and their dedi- These are really good people.
cation to one another is amazing.
Mickey told me that they don't
I am blown away by their desire think about getting hurt. They
to be on the front line doing any-
don't think about dying. They
thing and everything that they
don't think about the fear or dan-
can. On one hand, they're out of
ger. (I always say, that's why they
their minds, young and innocent,
take 18 year olds, before they start
still naive enough to consider
thinking!) They just want to do
themselves invincible.
what they have to do.

And not in the sense of doing
it to get it over with. They do it
because they believe in it.
I'm back to answering the e-
mails that have piled up during
the week. I have had so many let-
ters of support that I haven't been
able to keep up with answering
them all. Still, I never tire of read-
ing them, although they all say the
same thing.
For a change, it's nice to know
that most of the world is behind
us. It's nice to know that people
are thinking of us. I

Elizabeth Levy lived in Farmington
from ages 2-12. She made aliyah
in 1981. Her husband, Avi Levy, an
accountant, served three years in the
Israel Defense Forces plus 20 years
in the tank corps reserve. Her e-mail

address is levyliz@smile.net.il.