health

Absolute
Care

Top Docs Join
To Write Book
On Heart Health

Home-based
senior care
caters to Russian
community’s
needs.

KERI GUTEN COHEN

RIGHT:
Ruth Poberesky
and Ella Maryakhin.

JUDY GREENWALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

T

wo West Bloomfield nurses have
dedicated themselves to provid-
ing comfort and care for the
elderly in small group homes that offer
personalized, round-the-clock atten-
tion in a homey environment.
Absolute Care LLC, an adult foster
care service consisting of two homes in
a safe, inviting West Bloomfield neigh-
borhood, was started in 2015 by Ruth
Poberesky, 52, and Ella Maryakhin, 48,
both of whom grew up in the former
Soviet Union. The two are registered
nurses, with critical care, medical/
surgical and geriatric experience, along
with psychiatric certification, and both
have spent their careers working to
improve senior citizens’ lives.
“I believe the elderly deserve a good
quality of life, with proper care and
maximum comfort,” Poberesky said.
“And that’s just what our homes offer.”
Poberesky immigrated to Israel
and worked as a nurse in Hadassah
Hospital in Jerusalem before moving
to the United States. In Michigan, she
held nursing positions at Henry Ford
Hospital and DMC Sinai before mov-
ing to Beaumont Home Care and then
opening her Home Health Care Agency
in 2005. Maryakhin was a nurse in
Germany, working in geriatric care at a
nursing home, who came to the Detroit
area and was hired by Poberesky as an
RN case manager in 2007. Now they are
partners.
“While working for 10 years as home
care visiting nurses, we saw how clients
benefited from a home-like versus insti-
tutionalized environment, where there’s
a low caregiver-to-client ratio, and less
attention might be given to meals and
activities,” Poberesky explained. “In our
homes, which are smaller and more
personalized, we can offer specialized
programs, such as having a musician
entertain or volunteers assisting with

66

April 27 • 2017

jn

games, arts and crafts, and reading.
All of our rooms are private, and the
residents can even bring their own fur-
niture to really feel ‘at home.’”
Maryakhin said, “Our medical back-
grounds and knowledge also help in
monitoring residents’ conditions and
preventing complications that might
otherwise result in hospitalization.”
In October 2015, they opened their
first home for six residents, and then
expanded to a second home for six
clients on the same street about a year
later. The residences each have one
around-the-clock caregiver for the six
clients and, while keeping their costs as
affordable as possible, also offer extra
staffers during busy times like meals or
for bathing.
Absolute Care is open for all seniors,
both Jewish and non-Jewish, and
although Poberesky and Maryakhin
said they’re not familiar with non-Jew-
ish holiday practices, they are willing to
learn. Currently, only one client is not
Jewish.
Both women and their families
attend Jewish holiday services at The
Shul as well as Bais Chabad. They
proudly mentioned that Chabad Rabbi
Yossi Mishulovin, director of the F.R.E.E.
Russian Jewry Center in Southfield,
conducts Shabbat and holiday services
for them and their residents, who most-
ly are of Russian background. Some are
also Holocaust survivors.
“Our residents appreciate celebrating
the Jewish holidays with us and their
families and friends,” Maryakhin said.
“They enjoy all of our fresh food and
family recipes — especially our home-
made latkes, matzah ball soup, and
bagels and lox.”

December. Her daughter, Marina
Zarkhin of West Bloomfield, said,
“My mother had a stroke, and was in
rehab in a nursing home, but was very
unhappy there. I heard about Absolute
Care from a friend whose mother lived
there, and I’ve been very pleased with
everything. It’s a unique place, and I
spend time with my mother at least
three or four times a week.”
Another resident is Ruvim Fey,
whose son Victor, also of West
Bloomfield, comes to visit his father
every other day, and said the home
has exceeded his expectations.
“My father’s been here for three
months and is so much happier here
than when he was in a nursing home,”
he said. “When the time comes, I
would be happy to live here.
“Ella and Ruth and their staff are
satisfying a real, tangible need for the
Russian community and its growing
number of senior citizens.”
Both owners expressed how under-
standing the need to provide a famil-
iar and comfortable environment for
seniors, consistent with what they’ve
known throughout their lives, has
made for experiences both difficult
and rewarding.
“There is fear and worry when one
of our residents has to be hospital-
ized or sorrow when someone we’ve
become attached to passes away,”
Poberesky said. “But there are many
positives — when a resident comes
from a nursing home as ‘total care and
wheelchair-bound’ and then he takes
a few steps with a walker, or a resi-
dent shows her room to her relatives,
proudly saying, ‘This is my beautiful
home.’ This makes our jobs, our lives,
worthwhile.” •

HOMEY ENVIRONMENT

Margarita Molchadskaya has been
living in one of the homes since last

For information about Absolute Care, call (248)
622-6760.

Did you know drinking coffee might
protect your heart? Or that getting
the flu increases cardiovascular
risk? And shorter people are more
likely to develop heart disease?
These facts, plus other prevention
and heart health information, are
packed inside The Heart-Healthy
Handbook, featuring 140-plus essays
written by more than 60 Beaumont
Health experts and published by
Healthy Learning of California.
All proceeds from the book,
edited by Beaumont Hospital,
Royal Oak’s Barry Franklin, Ph.D.,
director of Preventive Cardiology
and Cardiac Rehabilitation, and
Simon Dixon, M.D., chairman of
the department of Cardiovascular
Medicine, will benefit the hospital’s
Cardiac Rehabilitation program.
“I’ve been at Beaumont 32 years,
and there is nothing I’ve been
more passionate about than this
book and its potential impact on
patients,” said Franklin; he is one of
eight Jewish physicians who worked
on the book. “Inside these covers,
dozens of Beaumont cardiovascular
experts came together to provide
their expertise.”
Surprising and easily digestible
information, Dixon said, make the
book a relevant reference tool.
“Most of us understand the best
way to treat heart disease is by
preventing it from developing,” he
said. “For those who want to be in
the driver’s seat when it comes to
managing their health care or their
family’s, this is the resource for you.”
Featured chapters/essays:
• Do You Need a Fitness Tracker?
• Mediterranean Diet: An Easy,
Flavorful Approach to Healthy
Eating
• Healthy Hound or Fat Cat? Your
Lifestyle Choices Affect Your Pet
• Atrial Fibrillation: Treatment
Options
• Traveling with Pacemakers and
Defibrillators
• Statin Drugs: Benefits Versus Risks
• Cardiovascular Benefits of Yoga
The Heart-Healthy Handbook
retails for $29.95 and is available
at Amazon.com (www.amzn.
to/2pbif80) and at the Royal Oak
Beaumont Hospital gift shop. •