SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27(2)-2020 1 INFORMED ADVICE, TESTED BY TIME.
WITH SPECIALISTS IN EACH FIELD OF SERVICE, ZLC HAS YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS COVERED. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT GARRY ZLOTNIK, OR VISIT US ONLINE TO GET STARTED.
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WHERE TO GO FOR HELP www.jsalliance.org/resources/where-to-go/
JSA is committed to providing resources for seniors seeking assistance or information. Visit our website www.jsalliance.org for a comprehensive list of services available to seniors: • Emergency Services • Counselling and Support Services • Medical Information and Referral Services • Transportation • Legal, Financial and Elder Abuse Services • Nutrition, Food and Meals • Housing, Rental and Mortgage Deferral • Information and Support Services
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911 Provides emergency dispatch services to Police, Ambulance and Fire 811 Health Link BC registered nurses can help you with non-emergency health topics and concerns 1-800-567-8911 Poison Control provides assistance if you suspect that someone has been poisoned 604-872-3311 The Crisis Centre and Suicide Prevention Centre can assist you if you are in emotional distress 1-800-273-8255 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides con dential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis
For a more comprehensive listing of all services available for seniors in B.C, please inquire about the BC Seniors’ Guide, a booklet published by the Government of British Columbia. Telephone Government of BC: 1-800-663-7867 www.SeniorsBC.ca Table of Contents Volume 27(2) - July 2020
Jewish Seniors Alliance COVER ART: Beneath the Trees (detail) of Greater Vancouver by Marcie Levitt-Cooper (see page 10-11)
949 W. 49th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 2T1 | 604.732.1555 2, 7 CO PRESIDENTS' MESSAGE o [email protected] | www.jsalliance.org 3 4 EDITOR'S MESSAGE CHARITABLE REGISTRATION 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR #88362 1401 RR0001 5 SERGE HABER'S MESSAGE COMMUNITY NEWS: THE TEAM 6 7 For Better and for Worse: e COVID-19 Pandemic at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 8 9 Jewish Chaplaincy Society: Connecting with Judaism without Dolores Luber a Synagogue REVIEW: JSA Snider Foundation Empowerment Series EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 9 #2: Film: Music of the Heart Dolores Luber, Ken Levitt, Rita Roling, PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Shanie Levin, Tamara Frankel, Bob Markin, 10 11 Marcie Levitt-Cooper Tony DuMoulin, Binny Goldman, Serge Haber KNOW YOUR TECHNOLOGY 12 View from Over the Hill CONTRIBUTORS 13 CURL UP WITH A GOOD BOOK Gyda Chud, Larry Shapiro, Serge Haber, 14 16 SENIORS IN THE MOVIES Dolores Luber, Dr. David Keselman, Rabbi PULL OUT Dina-Hasida Mercy, Tamara Frankel, Rita 17-20 In Case of Emergency Form Roling Muriel Kau mann, Hinda Avery, 21 CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST Charles Leibovitch, Grace Hann, Kenneth 22 23 HUMOUR! Levitt, Lynn Ungar, Anthony DuMoulin, Shanie Levin, Michael Lee, Ilana Shapira 24 25 BECOME A JSA SUPPORTER! JSA PEER SUPPORT SERVICES LAYOUT, DESIGN & PRODUCTION 26 Volunteer Pro le Jennifer Propp, Dolores Luber and Karon Shear 27 e New Normal at JSA's Peer Support Services anks to all contributors...and editorial team 28 29 DURING AND AFTER THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC anks to Copytek Printers, Sarj and Bal FEATURE 30 31, 33 Do Your Loved Ones a Favour: Tell em How You Want to Die DISTRIBUTION HEALTH AND WELLNESS Serge Haber, Rita Roling, Rita Propp, Jackie 32 33 inking of Aging as a Disease Weiler, Gyda Chud, Ken Levitt, Binny and 34 SUPPORTING SENIORS: South Vancouver Seniors Network Herb Goldman, Toby Rubin, Lyle Pullan, 35-36 HEBREW LANGUAGE: Israeli Response to COVID-19 Larry Shapiro 36 INSPIRATION ADVERTISERS
With Grateful Thanks to Our Sponsors ZLC Financial – inside front cover e Weinberg Residence – inside back cover Joanne LaRocque Realtor – inside back cover Dan Waterman, Oakwest Insurance – inside back cover Many other Foundations, Private and Corporate Donations
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 1 FACING CHANGE: WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP Written by Larry Shapiro and Gyda Chud
readers, to help us at Jewish Seniors while waiting for further treatment. John Alliance to identify those invisible and was very appreciative and I was happy to CO PRESIDENTS' MESSAGE forgotten (out of sight, out of mind) be able to boost his morale. members of our community. We ear Senior Line Reader; once again turn to you, the lucky and Radical changes needed fortunate ones to re-double your eorts in our long-term care How our world and our lives by taking that all-important step of facilities have changed since our last D picking up the phone and reconnecting edition was published in March. e Gyda and I, encouraged by our Advocacy with old acquaintances whose current impact of these changes in so many of Committee led by its determined and situation may have deteriorated. what were once, not so long ago, normal capable chairman, Tony DuMoulin, decided to begin a narrative with a view routine activities in our daily lives, from Here is a personal experience that clearly towards encouraging our political leaders shopping, socializing, exercising, going illustrates this point. I recently re- to make the radical changes needed in to doctors’ appointments, etc., have connected with a gentleman with whom our long-term care facilities. Our public aected every one of us. I had the pleasure of working on a major health-care system has been exposed construction project in Boundary Bay We have become painfully aware of by the COVID-19 Pandemic as having when I rst moved to Vancouver in 2013. the increase in stress and anxiety being been fractured by private-for-prot We became friends, and John shared expressed by those we serve, as they interests which are draining the public many stories about his life growing up share with us their fears—realistic fears system of health professionals. As private on the family farm in Holland with me. of contracting the dreaded COVID-19 businesses, they are not accountable to John described in detail how his father virus themselves and fears for their the public. e rst question we must ask hid a Jewish family in a huge haystack family and friends of becoming infected. ourselves is: Who should we seniors rely during the Nazi occupation of the eir apprehension and doubts about on to guarantee our rights when we need Netherlands. I have kept in touch with their ability to cope with the mounting them the most? We need to feel secure John sporadically but rarely saw him as anxiety over the long term are prevalent in the knowledge that we will receive the he lives with his wife in Mission. After and increasing at an alarming rate. e highest quality care in a safe and secure our appeal to you, dear readers, I scrolled reality is that there doesn’t appear to be an environment which is properly equipped through my contacts and started phoning end in sight to this dire situation. and appropriately staed. e answer is all of those with whom I haven’t spoken the Federal Government! e Federal Make an effort to in a long while. In my conversation Government should be there to see that reconnect with old with John, I discovered that he had just elder seniors live out their lives with the friends returned home from the hospital where dignity that they deserve in long-term he had undergone successful colon cancer care facilities! Gyda and I have appealed to you, our surgery. He was now recovering at home I don’t think anyone has any doubt that the present state of those facilities We charge the Federal Government to is in shambles and requires complete restore the dignity and proper health care restructuring. My thinking leads me to the conclusion that the task of totally to elder seniors in long-term care facilities. Continued on page 7... 2 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 ” WILL THERE BE A SILVER LINING OF THIS PANDEMIC? ICH BIN AZOY OYSGESOOMT I’M SO DONE WITH ZOOM!
Written by Dolores Luber
he title of this essay “Ich bin azoy improved in the care received by seniors EDITOR'S MESSAGE oysgesoomt” uses a new Yiddish in long-term care facilities. You can read word Oysgesoomt which means in Hebrew, our new feature, how Israelis T‘Over-exposed to, fatigued by, exhausted cope with the trauma of COVID-19. All is not gloom and doom, we have a from, bored by, had it with…Zoom.’ new comic strip, Bayla’s Issues, for you. Special Feature: The In- Hopefully you will relate to Hinda e last four months have been an Case-Of-Emergency Form Avery’s (PhD ’93, feminist activist, emotional and spiritual challenge, a roller- e specter and tangibility of death educator, philosopher, ne artist) comic coaster, for me, my family, my friends has come a little closer, no one knows book character Bayla and her wrinkles. and my colleagues. I wavered between when the ambulance will come to your Are you feeling “technologically” denial, cynicism, fear, anger, anxiety, front door or you will be rushed to the challenged? Join the club with Muriel de ance, resignation, hope and acceptance Emergency Department of your local Kau mann’s humorous blog on the topic regarding the life and death battle with the hospital. We must ask ourselves the of computers. Coronavirus being waged around me and hard questions about what we wish for humanity. We have been communicating For the culture mavens, there is a book ourselves in terms of health care and our love, our compassion and our review of Israeli writer A. B. Yehoshua’s surgical and mechanical interventions. yearning for connection with WhatsApp, book e T u n n e l and two other books We must have that conversation with the Facetime, Zoom and Skype. Deprived of which o er classic descriptions of e people closest to us! Dr. Bonnie Henry the usual cues of direct communication; Black Death in Europe. said, “It’s a challenging conversation that momentary shadow on the face, that many families are having right now about wistful, almost imperceptible glance; we Have you ever thought of Aging as a advanced directives, about understanding are forced to listen with acute attention, Disease? What are the advantages of this what their loved one wants should they we are compelled to concentrate with concept? What have been the positive become ill.” Now you have no more special focus. results of the research? Are there negative excuses—in the center of this magazine repercussions to this approach? We must really attend to each word— is a four-page pull-out form for each especially the new words—social of you to ll out and place on your The Plight of the distancing, herd immunity, attening the refrigerator or freezer, ready to be grabbed Charitable Sector curve, sanitizers, disinfectants, multiple in a minute by the ambulance attendant On March 29, 2020, Prime Minister masks (N95 respirators, surgical masks, or your spouse or friend. For the Justin Trudeau, acknowledged the plight cloth face masks), coronavirus, contact complete form with detailed instructions of the charitable sector, stating: “Not only tracing and COVID-19. Our vocabulary and to print out more forms, go to http:// are organizations in the charitable sector has been enriched and we are paying patientpathways.ca/plan-ahead-in-case- and the non-pro t sector doing incredibly attention! of-emeregency/. important work during di cult times, In this magazine you will read about We have an article about sharing your they’re also in many cases seeing their JSA’s Peer Support Services active role end-of-life decisions with others, as well donations dry up and are very worried in the Pandemic. You will learn of the as a description of Palliative Care, at about their capacity to continue to do consequences and possible improvements home and in Hospice; and the process the work they’re doing.” JSA relies on our resulting from the Post COVID-19 and procedures of Medical Assistance in Era—how services hopefully will be Dying (MAiD). Continued on page 4...
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 3 WILL THERE BE A SILVER LINING OF THIS PANDEMIC? e pessimist complains about the wind. e optimist expects it to change. ...Continued from Page 3. of JSA—please become a supporter for e realist adjusts the sails. $18 a year. supporters in order to continue meeting the needs of isolated and frail seniors. Do In closing, I would like to quote William Dolores Luber MS is a retired your part and make a donation; we are in Arthur Ward: psychotherapist and family counsellor. She taught psychology for many urgent need of nancial support. AND, You can't change the wind. years, and loves to learn. Researching, if you are receiving this magazine, it does But you can change the direction of writing and organizing JSA’s Senior not mean that you are a SUPPORTER your sails. Line magazine is her passion.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... Know at We Are Here For You Write to Dolores at: [email protected] Wanting to let you know that I very much appreciated the call from Marilyn Berger on Monday. I am doing OK at anks for your wonderful magazine. I would like to commend all those this point—doing my own shopping e Senior Line magazine is a joy to dedicated individuals who contribute in gloves and mask. Going for walks, receive, and I look forward to reading their time and expertise to Senior Line. sometimes with a friend, sometimes each article with excellent researched is publication certainly serves our alone. Participating in various online issues on seniors’ health, housing, income senior community with excellent articles activities and phone calls. If I do need security, and aging well. e humour and timely information. assistance, I’ll be sure to let you know. and arts sections increase my knowledge, Ivan Gasoi It’s reassuring to know that you’re there. and give pause and pleasure! Especially useful is the centre section of resources Susan Krug and upcoming events. Keep up the good Here is a photo of the tulips sent to me work, this is a lovely magazine! by the Queen of Holland. ey are very Greetings, wow, does the excellence and Barb Mikulec beautiful in the courtyard. dedication ever stop? Just yesterday we Chair COSCO Senior Health and David Friedman received the latest issue of Senior Line, Wellness Institute Resident of the Louis Brier Home which is, as always, superb to the hilt. Kol HaKavod and Mazel-Tov to all. Editor’s note: We wrote about David And, today, just a day later, Senior Line’s I came across an article online by Dolores and his garden in a previous magazine. outstanding editor calls for the editorial Luber re the artist Sergey Karlov. May He accomplishes wonderful things! Kol board to consider possible front covers for I inquire as to the contact information Ha Kavod David. the next issue! e answer to the query for Sergey? I am an artist (lapidary) and above—denitely not. art collector and would be interested in purchasing artwork by Sergey Karlov. Bob Markin
Rennie Castelino San Mateo, CA JSA Welcomes Editor’s note: I provided Rennie with the New Supporters required information. He and Sergey have Rachelle Czerwinski been communicating with each other. It Apolonia & Jakub Wilcynski is good to know that our magazine is read Georgene Powell beyond Greater Vancouver. Marilee Sigal
4 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 THE 11TH PLAGUE: THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC Written by Serge Haber
ot long ago we celebrated the odd calls, and will continue telephoning Passover Festivity and the our senior friends. I received many Seders. We celebrated the exclamations of thank you, of gladness, SERGE HABER'S MESSAGE Noccasion virtually with family and friends. and wonderful conversations occurred. We e Haggadah tells us about the 10 plagues seniors have done something very positive Living without the which Pharaoh and the Egyptians suered to help the situation. Virtual World because of not releasing the Hebrew people out of slavery. We are now experiencing the Problems in the long-term e Pandemic has forced people to use 11th plague, the Coronavirus Pandemic. care facilities the Internet, to the extent that it has never ese times will be marked in our history I’m ninety-two years old, and one of the been used before. At the same time, we as humanity’s ght against this malignant greatest diculties for me is questioning must remember that there is still a large adversary. Our suering and determination what is going to happen to me when I proportion of seniors who do not use a will lead to our success in arriving at a am no longer conscious of my actions, computer, it’s too late for them to learn. better tomorrow. disabled, or end up in a home for seniors. Between 15-17% of seniors are poor, they In these troubled times, it is mostly seniors cannot aord to buy a computer or a cell Our role in the Pandemic that are paying the ultimate price of life phone, neither can they aord to pay the Peer Support Services continues to train and death. e Pandemic has shown the fees that the service providers are charging volunteers, but they are calling their deciencies of our society in caring about for those services. We must remember to senior clients two to three times a week its elders; in failing to spend the necessary provide appropriate services to these people instead of once. e members of Jewish amount of money in order to provide the who live without the ‘virtual world’. Seniors Alliance (JSA) have undertaken proper help, love and care that these seniors A better response in an important and necessary program—we deserve. e world has lost almost a total the future are calling all our members, friends, and generation of seniors because of this plague acquaintances, over 1000 families, in order ‘the Coronavirus’. is magazine provides information and to alleviate the hours and days that we experiences which can lead to improvements spend in social isolation. We will continue Acknowledgement of in our caring for the elderly. We have to be to do so for the foreseeable future. front-line workers ready to adapt, to ght, to innovate, in order We must acknowledge the crucial role that to provide for our tomorrow. It will require We see the positive reactions of individuals individuals, doctors, nurses, caregivers adjustment and new enterprise. With 7.8 and families that are facing isolation. e and workers in every essential industry are billion people on this planet today, we have unfortunate Coronavirus experience is playing to keep us alive. ere has been to regard the future with much greater care demonstrating the importance of JSA’s a shortage of equipment, protective wear, than ever before. programs in ghting the adversity of masks and respirators which makes their social isolation. We now realize that in Serge Haber work even more dangerous and desperate. normal times there are many seniors who President Emeritus e world was not prepared for this kind are marginalized, lonely, disconnected of eventuality. It shows the outstanding from society and totally isolated. I believe Serge Haber is the founder and support of individuals who are risking that this is the nest proof of the validity President Emeritus of Jewish Seniors their lives on a daily basis, providing the of the JSA Peer Support Programs. We Alliance. His vision, his determination essential care, the food buying—they have must support this work on a regular basis and his continuing commitment are realized that there are people that need through your involvement as a supporter, crucial to the development of the help and they are willing to provide it by through volunteering and your nancial organization and its services. exposing their own lives to uncertainty. contributions. I personally made sixty SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 5 directives, it is time to think ahead and FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE accept that things may never go back THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC AT THE to what and how they were. We must welcome a “new-normal” and yet what LOUIS BRIER HOME AND HOSPITAL that new normal may or should look like Written by Dr. David Keselman is anyone's guess. My personal hope is that there is commitment for meaningful and sustained change in LTC. OVID-19 has wreaked havoc through innovation, education, research, on the healthcare scene in partnerships and collaboration with a Canada, a ecting our daily focus on quality and safety, all guided It is time to think Clives, both personal and professional. by Jewish heritage. Many people were sent home to either ahead and accept that I can not argue that the ‘resident’ self-isolate or work from home, labeling things may never go pandemic COVID-19 "episode" them as “non-essential” workers; while certainly exacerbated and contributed back to what and how identifying others as “essential” workers to the already fragile nature of the and charging them with a much greater they were. LTC sector. It highlighted the need to role and responsibility for the health and use speci c data to establish, measure, wellbeing of one of our most vulnerable and evaluate outcomes, as well as populations, our seniors. Many seniors further understand the e ciency and I believe that we need to consider the became isolated in their homes to stay e ectiveness of the work and services we following elements as part of such safe, and others resided in organized deliver—much as it is done in the acute change: healthcare facilities, or Long Term ” care sector. is will further enhance Care (LTC) facilities. ey also became 1. A much needed increase in funding the responsibility and accountability isolated, as their families were now to support improved sta ng levels in elements in the system, while considered a threat to their health and LTC did take place in the last year. standardizing our LTC services, across wellbeing and were not allowed to visit e current pandemic presented an the province as well as nationally. them. What a conundrum it is. opportunity to further examine the is pandemic presented a unique current direct care hours against the I have been a Registered Nurse (RN) opportunity to understand, needs and increasing clinical complexity for almost 30 years, my knowledge acknowledge, and accept the required of older adults. As a result of many is laced with experiences across the actions needed to correct the situation changes in the LTC sector, up to 70% country and a range of settings. I am and make a commitment to sustain the of the care sta are unregulated/non- not an expert in geriatrics, or LTC, required changes going forward. One registered and only 30% are licensed or and have only directly been involved point we should make clear – the registered (RNs and LPNs). with this sector since assuming the de ciencies in the LTC sector have role of the CEO of Louis Brier Home A sense of urgency may have been been known for quite sometime; and Hospital and Weinberg Residence presented to evaluate and reconsider funding formulas, sta ng ratios, and (LBHH and WR). As a healthcare the current skill mix and sta /resident aging infrastructure are easy to turn provider and a leader, I am committed ratios. As a result, a more robust sta ng a blind eye to. ey require dollars that to the delivery of accountable, quality, model may help meet the changing the system may not have. and safe care. LBHH was awarded an needs of residents in LTC. As frailty “Exemplary Status” by Accreditation Meaningful and and complexity of residents continues to Canada in 2018, for meeting and Sustained Changes in increase, so should the consideration to exceeding national standards for quality the New Normal adjust the current skill mix of registered and safety in the provision of care. Our and regulated providers that can safely Mission is to provide exemplary resident Almost three months into this and more adequately address such needs. and family-centered care for seniors pandemic, and after multiple restrictive
6 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 2. Evaluate resources and support infrastructure and safety standards COMMUNITY NEWS functions that each LTC facility relies to better and more eectively utilize on to support the safety of their sta resources. 8. Consider an alternate reporting and ensure that residents are safe structure to facilitate direct relationship 5. Focus education and training for and receive the highest possible care. and communication for LTC and front line sta and providers in meeting Resources such as dedicated Infection Ministry of Health (MoH). the needs of the geriatric population Control practitioners, adequate Human with complex needs and conditions. Resources personnel and Occupational If we desire change we must commit to Consider adding Nurse Practitioner Health & Safety experts are not funded change. (NP) positions into the LTC sector to in the LTC sector. further support and enhance the quality 3. Focus on the standardization and of care and resident outcomes. integration of technology across Dr. David Keselman, 6. Focus on the psychosocial needs of LTC and Health Authorities (HA), MN, DHA. CHE. the elderly and enhance recreation and to improve monitoring, evaluation, RN is Chief Executive spiritual support. documentation, and communication. Ocer of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital & 7. Identify best practices, rooted in 4. Improve infrastructure and facilities Weinberg Residence in Vancouver, research and innovation and enforce to meet current health and safety BC. He is also an Adjunct Professor, accountability and responsibility for standards. Consider larger and newer UBC School of Nursing. ” implementation and sustainability. FACING CHANGE: WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP with an element of nancial security; rather to be the authority responsible for the security of all Old Age matters that ...Continued from Page 2. send soldiers to serve as helpers in long- would certainly include long-term care term care facilities. At last count, there facilities. Perhaps the rst step should be rethinking our approach to long-term have been well over 1,000 members of to draft a Canadian Senior Citizens care including the design of the buildings the Canadian Armed Forces deployed to Bill of Rights which will serve the noble that house our Seniors should not be carry out this mission. It is the opinion purpose of assuring that the politicians under the control and authority of of Gyda and myself that the military keep their hands o our golden years. Provincial Health Boards but rather should not have to go to help in long- a Federal Ministry with an exclusive term care centres and it certainly is not As always, Gyda and I welcome your mandate holding them responsible for a long-term solution. thoughts on this and any other matters everything from approving and issuing that concern you. permits for the construction, renovation What about re-dening our OAS Be well, all, and stay safe. and modication of existing buildings to (Old Age Security) program as being meet minimum predetermined criteria. something more than a government Larry Shapiro and Gyda Chud e establishment of these resources is agency securing all Canadian Seniors Co-Presidents deemed necessary to assure that we never again witness the multitude of what the Gyda Chud’s lifelong passion is her Larry Shapiro studied accounting and current health care authorities refer to as career in Early Childhood Education worked at major rms as well as with examples of “neglect” to cover up what is which she teaches at Langara and VCC. the Federal government. In 1977, he in reality Elder Abuse. She serves on the Boards of numerous studied real estate and opened his own Lately the “solution” of last resort, at least organizations including JSA and business. Since moving from Montreal President of the Peretz Centre which to Vancouver, Larry has been an active for the provinces of Quebec, Ontario her parents helped establish in 1945. member of the JSA Board. and Saskatchewan is to call on Ottawa to
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 7 JEWISH CHAPLAINCY SOCIETY: CONNECTING WITH JUDAISM WITHOUT A SYNAGOGUE
Written by Rabbi Dina-Hasida Mercy
ne of my teachers a well- have chaplains, and prisons have known and esteemed rabbi, chaplains. told me of a class he had Otaken at a conference. e instructor, Other people who might not ‘go speaking to this group of rabbis, asked through the doors’ have experienced who had ever felt outside the realm rejection from traditional religious of Judaism. My teacher said most of sources. Unfortunately, there are many Since that rst Interfaith wedding those present raised their hands. e rejections when a Jew falls in love with in 1998, I have also had the pleasure point he was making was that even a non-Jew and they set about planning of watching that family and others the most respected leaders, maybe all their wedding. When I was in my grow in their commitments to individuals, will feel excluded at some rabbinic training, at one point we were keeping Judaism alive in their homes: point in time. e question I asked told, “Don't do interfaith weddings. o ciating conversion-of-a-minor batei myself was “if these esteemed leaders You'll become known as the rabbi who din for their children, Bar and Bat felt outside and excluded, how much just does interfaith weddings.” Mitzvah services, and counselling more so for someone who had reason I disagreed with that instruction Jewish grandparents on how to be a to feel outside and excluded?” Out of when I heard it, but my decision Jewish presence in less-than-traditional this story came the Jewish Chaplaincy was made when the rst couple Jewish families. Society. approached me about facilitating their Prison chaplaincy and wedding. I said ‘yes’ without a second Chaplaincy is spiritual service to senior prisoners those who are not able to participate thought. My observation has been in the traditional site-based religion that often rabbis of congregations are I have been involved in prison of their choice. expected to be gatekeepers for the chaplaincy since 2012. Of all the Jewish tradition. To me, Judaism is arenas where chaplains work, the Chaplaincy is like an inside-out wonderful and exciting, and I can prisons contain people who are the synagogue. A synagogue o ers understand the attraction of people most extreme outsiders. I am very wonderful programs and many to Jewish people who are not part aware that many people have little services for those who walk through of Judaism. For that reason, when sympathy for prisoners. Nevertheless, the doors. A chaplain goes to a non-Jew falls in love with a Jew, I it is heart-breaking to meet with individuals who, for whatever tend to think that part of the reason inmates who are young enough to be reason, cannot go through the doors. is the way that Judaism exhibits itself my grandchild and others who have Hospitals have chaplains, the military through that Jewish person. prematurely become old men.
How does life in prison age a person prematurely? Sleeping on a two-inch As we learn in Pirkei Avot: One who thick mattress on a metal base is the norm. ere is a regional unit for saves a life, saves a whole world.aa senior and frail inmates. If an inmate in that unit has complex health issues, 8 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 ” the person can apply for a thicker he believes that the inmate ‘helpers’ further out, having a harder time. mattress. Inmates have told me that steal from the seniors. Extending a hand brings us all closer. their dental care leans more towards As a Jew, I believe in the possibility pulling teeth than xing them. Long Rabbi Dina- that each person can do T’shuva waits for health care are common: A Hasida Mercy is (repentance/return). I work with senior inmate with dentures couldn’t an independent, interfaith families in order to get them replaced when there were liberal Rabbi living holes worn through them. A senior encourage Judaism in their homes and in Vancouver, BC. inmate told me that he waited nine I work with inmates to support their Currently she serves as the Chaplain T’shuva months for footcare that he was and eventual return to society. of the Jewish Chaplaincy Society and Pirkei Avot supposed to receive four times each As we learn in : One who as the Jewish Chaplain for the federal year. He can’t see well enough to cut saves a life, saves a whole world. No prisons in the Paci c region of Canada. She can be reached through her website: his own toenails. He doesn’t want to matter how excluded any one of us www.rabbi-mercy.com. go to the long-term care unit because may feel, there is always someone
Written by Tamara Frankel a violinist in the Guarneri Quartet, the concert is mounted at Carnegie he audience that gathered at And indeed, the audience was inspired Hall, with the participation of well- the JCC Wosk Auditorium by the dramatization of the true story know musicians, including Isaac was inspired by the 1999 of Roberta Guaspari, (portrayed by Stern, Itzhak Perlman and Joshua AmericanT biographical lm Music of Meryl Streep), who co-founded the Bell. Determination, toughness and the Heart. Opus 118 Harlem School of Music Chutzpah have won. and fought for music education e movie was a joint program of the funding in New York public schools. e audience was moved by the lm Jewish Senior Alliance and the Jewish which touched their hearts and rated it Community Centre Adults 55+, and Meryl Streep, who was nominated for excellent. e answer to the question: part of the JSA’s Empowerment Series an Academy Award for this movie (in “what brought you to this event” entitled Be Inspired. addition to her other 20 nominations), was unanimous: e opportunity to portrays the inspiring violin teacher of interact with friends and members a group of children and their initially of the community. is by itself is skeptical parents. e program she inspiring. initiated was eliminated ten years later and led to her early dismissal. With toughness and determination, and the Tamara Frankel support of former pupils, parents and is a member of the Board of Jewish teachers, she plans a bene t concert, Seniors Alliance Fiddlefest, to raise money so that the and of the Editorial program can continue. Committee But – alas – the venue was canceled. of Senior Line Magazine. She is also a Board member of the Jewish anks to Arnold Steinhardt, the Community Centre. husband of her publicist friend, and
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 9 Portrait of an artist Marcie cannot recall a time in her life when she was not painting or drawing. Marcie Levitt-Cooper She remembers how at the age of three Written by Rita Roling she and her father were sitting side by side drawing and painting. He is the one who rst inspired her to nurture her artistic talent and to persue her creative passions. e are living during dicult times due to the Covid-19 Her rst venture was in calligraphy pandemic. To escape the mundanity of social which included Ketubah commissions. isolation, we humans need mental stimulation, joy She was calligrapher/artist for the Beth andW excitement. Visual arts can give us all these and Vancouver Israel Golden Book for around 20 years. artist Marcie Levitt-Cooper’s painting Beneath the Trees [front e curves and uid lines in calligraphy cover] certainly does. are evident in many of her paintings.
Art is the expression of the artist’s creative mind and its purpose is Marcie describes herself as a self-taught to produce thinking and feelings. It is not important where your late starter. She has now emerged as a particular beach is; what matters is your reaction to the picture. serious, prolic artist who spends every Maybe your feelings give you pleasure, grief, or tranquility. afternoon in her studio. Her paintings Individual interpretations are based on what we ourselves know evoke feelings of beauty and joie de vivre. and have experienced. Life, nature and people inspire her. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 social restrictions, I did not have When I viewed on-line some of her work the opportunity to meet Ms. Levitt-Cooper in person, but on such as Roses by the River, I was taken the phone her voice was full of sunshine, optimism and honesty, aback by the plumpness of the bell- which she said is the message in her work. shaped roses and the vividness of the green cedar tree in the background. She did not have to tell me that this piece of
10 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 art was painted during a very happy and homes similar to birdhouses. All have content part in her life. open doors. Together these works depict progress and lead me to believe the artist Marcie’s art speaks to the viewer or in the says it does not matter if a person lives in a Re ections case of it sings. e painting single family home or a condo, a home is a depicts a seascape at twilight when the welcoming place. colours are muted and the di erences between water and sky are more nuances Marcie herself lives in a multigenerational than breaks. Most of us are familiar with home. She is surrounded by children, Louis Armstrong’s crooning,“I see skies grandchildren and extended family. When of blue and clouds of white, the bright we talked I could hear young voices in the blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I background and she told me she had just think to myself, what a wonderful world.” completed a present for her sister-in-law who ose lyrics are the very essence of Marcie’s is celebrating a special event. is work of “re ections” as it urges us to turn inward art is of an erect, metallic blue Iris. Strong and re ect on our lives, its meanings and and true like you Marcie Levitt-Cooper. its blessings. ank you for sharing your time with me and giving me this piece of wisdom: “if the Family is and has always been a source of canvas is cursed, throw it away.” strength and safety for Marcie. No matter where she lived the doors to her home were always open to family and friends. Doors Rita Roling are a recurring theme in her art, they worked in the illustrate how she feels about aging, roots, social service eld and inclusiveness. For example in two of for over three her paintings, doors are the feature points; decades. She is a Page 10: one is of a heritage home and the other of a rm believer in volunteerism and has for Left: R e e c t i o n s Vancouver Special. Both have closed doors many years been actively involved with Right: Tide’s In but the wide steps leading up to the entry the Jewish Seniors Alliance. She is on the Page 11: are easy to climb. One of Marcie’s later board of JSA and Past Vice President, and also a member of the editorial committee. Top: Aging Gracefully works, Open Doors, shows several small Left: Cousins Right: Tikkun Olam
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 11 terried at having to learn how to use a KNOW YOUR TECHNOLOGY: new electronic device.)
VIEW FROM OVER THE HILL COVID-19 came along and thus Ra Written by Muriel Kaumann is spending more time at home. He suggested this was a good time for me to take the big step. He chose a computer to Muriel Kau mann shares heart-warming and humorous "thoughts suit my needs and promised to be helpful from an opinionated old lady" in her blog, View From Over e Hill. AND patient. He’s managed that — You can follow her at https://viewfromoverthehill.wordpress.com/ almost always. (Don’t be judgmental, I’m not YOUR mother. Lucky you!)
y computer must be about 14 She denitely had my attention after Because of everything else happening, years old. When it was 11, she showed me this gorgeous photo of our tax people gave us extra time to it was ill and needed care, herself. Lucky you, because of Susan’s le, so the rst thing I attempted on soM I took it in to the Apple Store where patience, you get the privilege of seeing this brand-new machine, which can do I bought it. ey do repairs, but refused two real beauties. Aren’t we gorgeous? 98% more than I’ll ever need, was to to x mine because, said they, it was over Well, we sure had fun. do my tax return. Well folks, I’m not 10 years old. Obviously, if I didn’t buy a totally useless – I’m just technologically After we howled with laughter, Susan new one, Apple would go bankrupt for challenged. I made it! I did my return diligently wrote down very clear sure. Right? So, I took it elsewhere and and e-led it! Congrats to me. Yeah! instructions to leave for me. Will her it’s been feeling ne ever since. eorts bear fruit? Andrew, my priceless local ‘grandson’ If you think I know how to use ordered the computer online for me everything on my computer you are and set it up when it arrived. He spent absolutely mistaken. I’m not at all a oodles and oodles of time transferring technologically-gifted individual. information from my old computer. I never could have managed without him. My daughter Susan visited. She deemed it of value to attempt to teach her en, just to make me happy, he mom how to use something new – my managed to nd a beautifully-coloured computer’s built-in camera. It’s always hummingbird for my desktop. I love it! been there, but has never ever been used Wouldn’t you like to open your computer before. It was an experience to remember. Look Susan. I just took this one of me and see this? I am, indeed, a lucky gal. in my reading glasses! Your instructions It takes more than a little patience to were great!!! ank you! ank you! I teach me computer stu, but Susan love the idea of learning something new. knows me well and how to keep me focused. Make me laugh and you’ve I was content with my old computer. got my full attention. is Susan Start over? What? Are you nuts? accomplished — in spades. is year I was told I could no longer Photo: Roger Levien do my tax return on it; and my son Ra could no longer save my butt using Muriel Kau mann is an TeamViewer. accomplished journalist writing for It has been useful when I was various newspapers and magazines. desperate. Where computers are She is the founder and past-president concerned, I DO get desperate – often. of the B.C. Balance and Dizziness Disorders Society, and has served on WWWEEELLLLLL, I had to rethink the Boards of JSA, and Wavefront. what I thunk. (I also admit I was
12 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 CURL UP WITH A GOOD BOOK tunnels of the Trans-Israel Highway is no longer possible. To keep his mind sharp, Zvi decides to take a job as the unpaid Written by Dolores Luber assistant to Asael Maimoni, a young engineer involved in a secret military project, a road to be built inside the massive To my readers, do you have a favourite book? Write a couple of Ramon Crater in the northern Negev Desert. Living secretly paragraphs about it and send it to me ([email protected]). on the proposed route, amid ancient Nabatean ruins, is a Share the pleasure and the excitement of a good book. Palestinian family under the protection of an enigmatic archaeological preservationist. Zvi rises to the occasion, proposing a tunnel that would not dislodge the family. e have been studying Hebrew, both Modern and Biblical, story is a sensitive, realistic and humorous account of a man for 20 years. But, I cannot read a novel in Hebrew, it is struggling and coping with his early dementia and the quirks just too demanding and time-consuming, so I read Israeli of the Israeli mentality. I relished every word. Available at the authorsI in translation. My favourite Israeli writers are Amos Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library. Oz, David Grossman and A.B Yehoshua. THE PLAGUE IN LITER ATURE My rst and lasting impression of A.B. Yehoshua was in Information is power—with knowledge, you can control A Journey to the End of the Millennium reading his novel your own destiny. Knowledge gives you the power of (1999) . He takes us on a journey through time back to the decision-making. Because of the information you have, Middle ages as the rst Millennium of the Christian era decisions can be made. approaches, and across continents, as Ben Attar, a North African Jewish merchant from Tangiers embarks on a long A.B. Yehoshua wrote an article in Hebrew about the situation and potentially hazardous sea journey past Gibraltar, way up in Israel regarding the Pandemic and the participation or lack the Atlantic coast, and up the Seine to the Frankish town thereof of certain religious groups. He mentioned two classic of Paris. I was enthralled and delighted in this romantic, books which described e Black Death in Europe. historical novel. e Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, written in Italian en I read Mr. Mani (1992). Six generations of the Sephardi in 1825-26, is considered a classic masterpiece of romantic Mani family are chronicled in this profound and passionate historical ction. e scene is laid in Lombardy between Mediterranean epic which moves backwards from the 1628 and 1631, and the plot deals with the thwarting of 1980s to the mid-nineteenth century. e story comprises the love of two peasants by a local tyrant. e manners of of ve conversations each centering on the fate of a dierent the time are presented with great vividness; one of the most member of the Mani family and in each the responses of one notable elements being the elaborate description of the plague person are absent. Mr. Mani is surprisingly humorous, full of which devastated Milan in 1630 (Chapters 31 – 37). If extraordinary historical perspectives and is deeply wise and you wish to put our Pandemic in perspective, if you wish compassionate. It is an imaginative tour de force. to understand human nature and its responses to plagues, acquire this book and read only the seven chapters. You will THE TUNNEL HAMINHAR A be fascinated and horried at the same time. by A.B Yehoshua (2020) A.B. Yehoshua’s second recommendation was e Plague, His most recent novel is equally by Albert Camus, published in 1947. It tells the story from fascinating, written at the age the point of view of an unknown narrator of a plague of 82! Here is a suspenseful sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. Camus won and poignant story of a family the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957 for this work. A coping with the sudden mental haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved decline of their beloved husband horror, Camus’ novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the and father, an engineer who population is a classic of 20th century literature. they discover is involved in an In reading these two books, I was able to better understand ominous military project. Zvi what is happening in Canada, and the various reactions of Luria is showing signs of early people and governments towards the COVID-19 virus. dementia, and his work on the SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 13 Langella (age 82) as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. Seniors in the Movies is is armchair-to-armchair sparring. Nixon is seeking Written by Dolores Luber absolution. Frost is betting his career on the interviews. e four actual interviews were a huge success; the movie is clever and captivating. I was shocked to discover that Movies and television series move around in the I actually liked Nixon in the end! Available on Net ix, Streaming world of the Internet. Also Shaw and Telus iTunes, Microsoft, Google Play. have free movies on demand! When I want to watch a movie I do a Google search “Where can I watch Apollo 13 ( e name of the movie)”? You can pay monthly THE LIGHTHOUSE for the individual streaming services (Net ix, Hulu, 2019 Amazon Prime, Crave, etc.) or you can pay to watch a speci c movie on Google Play, Microsoft or iTunes. In this case I paid $4.99 on Google Play. is is a superb Willem Dafoe (age 64) and Robert movie (1995), based on the true story (six days in 1970) Pattinson star in this moody, sly of three American astronauts who, if not for the superb American Gothic set in the late 19th technical assistance from NASA on the ground, and century. e stark black-and-white their own resolute, rational approach to problems in the cinematography deepens the lm’s spacecraft, almost did not make it home. shadows and unease. A horror movie about inner and outer darkness, the lm begins with two lighthouse workers, Wake and Winslow, arriving on a small, desolate island. Over KNIVES OUT many solitary days and nights, they work, eat, drink and 2019 dig at each other, establishing a bristling antagonism born of temperament and boredom. It is an exquisite lm, with impeccable acting, a riveting experience for the movie lover. Remember I said “a horror movie.” Available on Amazon e movie takes the shape of an old- Prime, Net ix, Hulu and HBO. fashioned whodunit—the kind with mystery, suspense, entertainment, a corpse on an heirloom settee and PAIN AND GLORY a half-dozen or so shifty suspects 2019 milling about. As suits the genre, the main setting is a stately manor with dark corners, creaking stairs and a warren of richly appointed rooms shrouded in secrets. Daniel Craig plays Benoit Blanc, the private investigator. is is an Antonio Banderas (age 59) plays Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, with interrogations, Salvador Mallo, the celebrated possible motives and dubious alibis. It is delightful to watch Spanish lmmaker who is gravely “something old” which is such great fun. Available at Black depressed, his body seems to have Dog Video. permanently surrendered to his maladies, to his bad back, migraines, asthma and ts of FROST/NIXON terrifying mysterious choking. When a friend o ers him some heroin to smoke, Salvador readily lights up and 2008 disappears. His nagging pains suddenly give way to images from his childhood, idylls that brighten the screen like beacons in a fog. e lm is a story of memory and creation, We all remember Watergate and with many autobiographical elements from the life of the the resignation of President Richard director, Pedro Almodóvar. He shares with the audience Nixon. Now you can relive it in a the pain and the glory of his own personal history. Superb! theatrical smackdown with Frank Available on YouTube, Google Play.
14 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 Ultr a-Orthodox Judaism PROFILE OF A DIRECTOR: in the Spotlight BONG JOON-HO
UNORTHODOX Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean writer and lmmaker. His 2020 movie Parasite won four Academy Awards this year, best picture, best directing, best international feature lm and best writing (original screenplay). It was the rst non-English language lm in Oscar history to win the award for best picture. Unorthodox is a 4-part television I watched Parasite, enthralled by this fascinating story, brilliantly series about a young woman acted and sumptuously lmed. I learned the term “revenge escaping the Satmar Hasidic narrative.” His topic is the huge gap between the rich and the community in present-day poor. e result of this inequity is chaos and violence, the lower Brooklyn. Esty (Shira Haas) is depths rise with a vengeance. We laugh at the beginning, but be a 19-year-old bride in an unhappy arranged marriage, prepared for surprises. I was hooked. I decided to watch some unable to consummate her marriage in order to produce other lms he had made. a child. One day, with cash and a few papers stashed in her waistband, she escapes to Berlin alone, looking for Okja (2017) came next. In Okja, a girl and her pig take on the the mother who herself ed the Satmars and her alcoholic industrial food complex. Okja is a most remarkable pig, who is husband when Esty was a child. Haas is a phenomenon, loyal, gentle and brave. He is devoted to a girl name Kija. ey expressive and captivating. Yanky, her husband, searches have grown up together on a remote mountain farm, inseparable for her, following her to Berlin. I had sympathy for Yanky, companions in a classic literary and cinematic tradition. Enter he is uninformed, naïve, at a total loss as to the role of the multinational corporation, Mirando and the villain, Lucy Mirando, chief executive o cer. ey own the pig who is husband and lover. It is helpful if the viewer has some destined for the slaughter house. Kija ghts back, chaos and knowledge of the many variations of Orthodox Judaism; violence ensue. is is an animal rights fable, or at least a protest but even without it, the tremendous intimacy of the lm against factory farming and genetic engineering. You laugh, you and the humanity of all the characters is commendable. smile and you gasp at the terrifying enormity of the situation. In Yiddish, English and German. Available on Net ix. I watched Snowpiercer (2013) with trepidation and anguish. THE AWAKENING After a human-engineered planetary catastrophe (trying to OF MOTTI arrest the planet’s warming, we accidentally froze it solid), WOLKENBRUCH the remaining people are con ned to a train that never stops 2018 moving. A few thousand survivors live in railway cars, sorted into a rigid and ruthlessly enforced social order. Towards the front, the more fortunate enjoy access to schools, nightclubs and fresh food. A group of rebels have decided to challenge the power e setting is an Orthodox of the entrepreneur who is in charge and the extreme inequality Jewish community in he represents. e movie is hard to watch, the violence is graphic, Switzerland. College student and the acting is superb. His message is clear—inequity will Motti (Joel Basman) is the Wolkenbruch’s youngest bring on revolution and violence. His movies cause one to re ect son, his siblings are married. He is stubbornly turning on our world order—now! ree more movies to go: Memories down every shidduch (arranged match) the family sets of Murder, Mother and e H o s t . Do I have the stamina? up with nice Jewish girls from nice Jewish families. He insists on feeling a “spark” with the woman he’s expected to marry. en he falls hard for beautiful Laura (Noemie Schmidt), a shiksa (non-Jewish girl) in his economics class. In a panic, Motti’s parents send him to Israel to nd a girl there, but instead he is seduced by a free-spirited Israeli girl. In Yiddish and German, with English Subtitles. Available on Net ix.
Continued on page 16... SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 15 Seniors in the Movies Special Mention
...Continued from Page 15. INSIDE BILL’S BRAIN: DECODING BILL GATES DISOBEDIENCE 2019 2017
is is a tribute to a rich man trying Disobedience tracks Ronit (Rachel to make a di erence. With the full Weisz) as she steps back in time cooperation of Bill Gates, the director after the death of her rabbi father, Dais Guggenheim creates a superb a revered religious gure in north portrait of an intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate man. London. is tightly religious e three parts of the documentary series describe Gates’ community no longer wholly welcomes her. She resumes favourite projects, his early family life and his marriage to her relationship with a former lover Esti (Rachel McAdams) Melinda. I hung onto every moment, relishing the details of as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality. his relationship with his mother. I did not want it to end. He Ms. McAdams and Ms. Weisz persuasively convey the is a mensch. Available on Net ix. inner lives of the character they play. ere are graphic scenes of sexual intimacy. Available on Net ix. JUDY 2019 Watch With The Grandkids
Renée Zellweger plays Judy Garland WONDER near the end of her life, when she 2017 grasped onto one more comeback and one last chance. Zellweger is superb, she plays a few variations on Garland; “I know I’m not an ordinary worried mother, needy lover, disaster and legend. e movie 10-year-old kid,” say Auggie (Jacob derives its force from its central mythic gure and our own Tremblay), as we see him standing memories: the Hollywood supernova. e viewer shares in on his bed wearing an astronaut’s the despair that comes from watching someone die in slow helmet. When the helmet is removed, motion. An extraordinary lm. Available at Black Dog Video we see his young scarred face, his earlobes are little aps and and Amazon Prime. his eyes are tear-shaped, giving him a perpetual sad-puppy expression. Auggie describes his facial birth defects and the AMERICAN FACTORY 27 operations he has endured as “hilarious.” But Auggie is 2019 less amused by the prospect of entering the fth grade, and no longer being home-schooled by his brilliant and loving mother, Isabel Pullman (Julia Roberts). is documentary sharply delineates e movie, based on the children’s novel by R.J. Palacio, the possibilities and the limits of hews to the book’s multicharacter narration structure a modern global economy. An which allows us to understand each character’s feelings and abandoned GM plant becomes, seven behaviour. Auggie knows that he will encounter bullies, but years later, a Chinese windshield he is smart, clever and exceptionally good-hearted. He has a company called Fuyao Glass. Steven Bognar and Julia knack for winning people over. Wonder is a family picture, Reichert, the directors, follow the Chinese workers who lled with intelligence and intimacy, it moves and amuses come to Ohio to establish the plant, and the Americans who while never overtly pandering. Available on Net ix. struggle to conform to their vastly di erent management style. ere are scenes of startling culture clash. e movie received rave reviews. I agree! Available on Net ix. 16 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 IN CASE OF EMERGENCY An In Case of Emergency Form (ICE) speaks for you when you are overwhelmed or unable to speak for yourself or a loved one. It gathers key information about you, your health, and your household, and makes it immediately available to first responders, paramedics, family and friends. Post this ICE form and all completed, related documents in a clear plastic zippered folder on the front of your fridge.
For More information go to: http://patientpathways.ca/plan-ahead/in-case-of-emergency/ PARAMEDICS AND FIRST RESPONDERS: PLEASE READ AND TAKE TO HOSPITAL
MEDICAL INFORMATION
F u l l n a m e [ L a s t n a m e , G i v e n n a m e s ] : ______P e r s o n a l h e a l t h n u m b e r : ______Paramedics & First Respond ers | please read & take to hospital M a i n p h o n e : ______A l t e r n a t e p h o n e : ______COVER PAGE – INCLUDED IN THIS PACKET ARE FORMS FOR: B i r t h d a t e [ y y y y - m m - d d ] : ______L a n g u a g e s S p o k e n : ______D a t e c o m p l e t e d [ y y y y - m m - d d ] : ______
DOCUMENTS INCLUDED WITH THIS ICE FORM
Representation Agreement No CPR Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment [MOST] Advance Directive Expected Death in the Home [EDitH] [For those nearing end of life] Enduring Power of Attorney OR Power of Attorney Registered organ donor Funeral arrangements and after-death care of body instructions O t h e r i m p o r t a n t d e t a i l s c a n b e f o u n d : ______
IMPORTANT CIRCUMSTANCES
Examples: “I care for my husband Jack. He has dementia and can’t be left alone; call his brother Fred,” or “Sally h a s a u t i s m a n d i s n o n v e r b a l , ” o r “ I a m d e a f w i t h o u t m y h e a r i n g a i d s . ” ______
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 17 MEDICAL CONDITIONS & RECENT SURGERIES [Most important and recent at top.]
C o n d i t i o n : : ______Y e a r d i a g n o s e d / t r e a t e d : ______N o t e s : ______
C o n d i t i o n : : ______Y e a r d i a g n o s e d / t r e a t e d : ______N o t e s : ______
C o n d i t i o n : : ______Y e a r d i a g n o s e d / t r e a t e d : ______N o t e s : ______
C o n d i t i o n : : ______Y e a r d i a g n o s e d / t r e a t e d : ______N o t e s : ______
C o n d i t i o n : : ______Y e a r d i a g n o s e d / t r e a t e d : ______N o t e s : ______
C o n d i t i o n : : ______Y e a r d i a g n o s e d / t r e a t e d : ______N o t e s : ______
MOBILITY AND SENSORY ISSUES
Paralysis Autism spectrum Wheelchair Nonverbal Walker Low/No hearing Cane Hearing aid Scooter Low/No vision Prosthetic limb Eyeglasses Dentures Contact lenses Swallowing O t h e r : ______
LIFE THREATENING ALLERGIES [Most important and recent at top. Example for “What to do: Benadryl or Epi Pen”.]
A l l e r g e n : ______R e a c t i o n : ______W h a t t o d o : ______
A l l e r g e n : ______R e a c t i o n : ______W h a t t o d o : ______
A l l e r g e n : ______R e a c t i o n : ______W h a t t o d o : ______
A l l e r g e n : ______R e a c t i o n : ______W h a t t o d o : ______
18 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION RECORD
Where these prescribed medications are kept: Kitchen/Fridge Purse/bag Bathroom O t h e r : ______ Bedroom
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______P r e s c r i b e d B y : GP Specialist When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______P r e s c r i b e d B y : GP Specialist When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______P r e s c r i b e d B y : GP Specialist When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______P r e s c r i b e d B y : GP Specialist When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
NON-PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS, OINTMENTS & SUPPLEMENTS Where these prescribed medications are kept: Kitchen/Fridge Purse/bag Bathroom O t h e r : ______ Bedroom
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______R e c o m m e n d e d B y : ______When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______R e c o m m e n d e d B y : ______When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
D r u g : ______D o s a g e : ______ Oral Inhaler Patch Ointment Injection T a k e n f o r : ______R e c o m m e n d e d B y : ______When: Morning Lunch Supper Bedtime
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 19 MEDICAL EMERGENCY CONTACTS
N a m e : ______R e l a t i o n s h i p : ______M a i n p h o n e : ______A l t e r n a t e p h o n e : ______
N a m e : ______R e l a t i o n s h i p : ______M a i n p h o n e : ______A l t e r n a t e p h o n e : ______
CURRENT PHYSICIANS
F a m i l y p h y s i c i a n : : ______P h o n e : ______A d d r e s s : ______L a s t s e e n [ y y y y - m m ] : ______N o t e s : ______
S p e c i a l i s t p h y s i c i a n : : ______P h o n e : ______A d d r e s s : ______L a s t s e e n [ y y y y - m m ] : ______N o t e s : ______
S p e c i a l i s t p h y s i c i a n : : ______P h o n e : ______A d d r e s s : ______L a s t s e e n [ y y y y - m m ] : ______N o t e s : ______
S p e c i a l i s t p h y s i c i a n : : ______P h o n e : ______A d d r e s s : ______L a s t s e e n [ y y y y - m m ] : ______N o t e s : ______
PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD CONTACTS [Examples: “Building manager, friend with key”]
N a m e : ______P h o n e : ______R o l e : ______N o t e s : ______
N a m e : ______P h o n e : ______R o l e : ______N o t e s : ______
NOTES
______
REVIEW YOUR DOCUMENTS EVERY YEAR OR AFTER ANY CHANGE IN HEALTH STATUS
20 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST
Our Runners Up:
Don‛t oy me. Give a look. He‛s single, almost a dentist, and he keeps kosher! “What’s the problem, Sweetheart? He says he likes older women!” - Sharon Harowitz
“It's called sexting!” - Dana Sair
“Sweetheart, your Bubbe has made so many friends in Nigeria!!” - Edward Korbin
“Sweetie, I just found a nice Jewish boy for you on J Date” - Ivan Gasoi “Don’t oy me. Give a look. He’s single, almost a dentist, and he keeps kosher!” “Download the new app, GEFILTE. Use it to Phish around!” - Morris Harowitz Congr atulations to our Winner: 1. “I gave your phone a good wash in soapy water. Now it won’t have any viruses!” Alex Kliner 2. “I just had a good talk with your new boyfriend.” anks to everyone for your creative e orts! - Catherine Myerowitz
ENTER THE CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST! Write a caption for the cartoon and send it to us by mail or email
Jewish Seniors Alliance 949 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2T1 Email: o [email protected]
Be sure to include your name and address. e author of the winning caption will receive a JSA T-shirt and two Tribute Cards worth $18.00 each to send to family or friends. We will publish the cartoon with your REVIEW YOUR DOCUMENTS EVERY YEAR OR AFTER ANY CHANGE IN HEALTH STATUS caption in the next Senior Line.
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 21 HUMOUR! REALITY CHECK Eventually, you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging LOOKING GOOD about it. My face in the mirror isn’t wrinkled or drawn. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re getting My house isn’t dirty. e cobwebs are gone. old. Squash their toes with your rocker. My garden looks lovely and so does my lawn. e older we get, the fewer things seem I think I might never put my glasses back on. worth waiting in line for. Some people try to turn back their EXERCISES FOR SENIORS odometers. Not me. I want people to know why I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way You know how important exercise is, as we grow and some of the roads weren’t paved. older. Here are a few suggestions. I start by standing outside behind the house and, with a ve-pound Maturity means being emotionally and potato sack in each hand, extend my arms straight mentally healthy. It is that time when you out to my sides and hold them there as long as I can. know when to say yes and when to say no, and when to say WHOOPPEE! After a few weeks, I moved up to 10-pound potato How old would you be if you didn’t know sacks, then 50-pound potato sacks and nally I got how old you are? to where I could lift a 100-pound potato sack in each hand and hold my arms straight out for more than a When you are dissatised and would like to full minute! go back to youth, just think of Algebra.
Next, I started putting a few potatoes IN the sacks, but One must wait until evening to see how I would caution you not to overdo it at this level. splendid the day has been.
22 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27(2)-2020 23 Peer Support Services
Did You Know? Jewish Seniors Alliance Peer Support Program provides services to over 200 seniors with varied needs, from diverse cultural backgrounds. Services are delivered in multiple languages by highly trained and motivated volunteers, who receive certifi cation after 55 hours of training.
Seniors Stronger Together
Your support makes a meaningful difference in the lives of seniors
"In supporting other seniors, I am JSA has initiated several helping myself. My personal life supportive and distinct peer has changed and benefi tted services o ered to all seniors in tremendously. I have felt more fulfi lled the lower mainland, promoting and engaged in my community. I self-empowerment, volunteerism have made many new friends through the volunteer program. and seniors helping seniors. Peggy, Volunteer ‘‘ Peer support is a one-to-one service provided by specially trained volunteers who are Connecting with other peers supervised by professional sta . has been a true blessing in "my life. It gives me a sense of JSA Peer Services include: purpose. My listening skills became Weekly Peer Support Sessions, a part of my life. Not only have I Friendly Phone Calls, Home helped others but I have received Visits, and Information many benefi ts for myself. " Referrals. These services are ‘‘ provided free of charge. Audrey, Volunteer
We Need Your Help! To continue this needed service PLEASE DONATE TODAY! Show your support, become Jewish Seniors a member/supporter of Jewish Seniors Alliance. Donate by phone at 604-732-1555, Alliance online at www.jsalliance.org/donate/, or fi ll in the form on the opposite page. Outreach
JSA provides annual programs to empower, inform, and educate, which are designed to enhance and improve the quality of life for seniors, Did You Know? including our Spring Forum, Fall Symposium and Empowerment Series. Three times a year the Senior Line Magazine will come to your door, chock full of informative, innovative, and cultural articles. Our website www.jsalliance.org is bursting with useful information, including an up- to-date calendar listing senior events, articles, videos and much more. Follow our Facebook Page for curated articles on topics about seniors.
Advocacy
Advocating for the needs of seniors and seniors' organizations in the Lower Mainland, JSA responds to concerns with governments, public agencies and funding groups, including at this time:
• Urging the federal government to implement a national, universal pharmacare and dental insurance program for seniors.
• Participating in webinars and zoom meetings to share information that focuses on issues that seniors are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Working with other groups to advocate for provincial government mandated higher sta ng ratios in long term and assisted living facilities.
RETURN TO: Jewish Seniors Alliance Jewish Seniors Alliance Seniors Stronger Together 949 W 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2T1
Name Telephone Address City Postal Code Email Yes, I would like to Support JSA with a One Time Donation in the amount of: $18 $36 $54 $72 Other: $______Your monthly gift will bring steady funding to vital programs. I wish to make a Monthly Contribution in the amount of: $20 $35 $50 Other: $______Cheque enclosed for $ ______payable to Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver Credit Card # (Visa/MC) Expiry Date / We Need Your Help! Signature Please help save costs by signing up to receive tax receipts by email Yes No To continue this needed service PLEASE DONATE TODAY! Show your support, become a member/supporter of Jewish Seniors Alliance. Donate by phone at 604-732-1555, A Donation of $18 or more will recognize you as a Member/Supporter of JSA which will allow you to vote at our AGM. online at www.jsalliance.org/donate/, or fi ll in the form on the opposite page. A tax receipt will be issued for a donation of $18 and up. 604.732.1555 | [email protected] | www.jsalliance.org | Like us on Facebook then as she had dreams of becoming a teacher or social worker PEER SUPPORT to help others. She worked at Canadian General Electric as a secretary for ve years. She was then hired by ICBC in SERVICES the claims department. She worked there for thirteen years, climbing to the level of trainer for adjusters.
rough her personal relationships, Catherine discovered Volunteer Profile: that she had a pattern of choosing partners who had Catherine Derhousoff lifestyle behaviors that were unhealthy. She had a vocational assessment which revealed her love of cooking so Catherine Interview by Charles Leibovitch then enrolled and completed her training as a chef. During this time, she helped her partner with his addiction and he A Born Nurturer with an Adventurous, successfully recovered with Catherine’s help. However, her Independent Spirit mother was dying, so Catherine and her partner moved back to Vancouver, where she put in some time cooking at Catherine has been a Bishop’s on 4th Avenue in Kitsilano. Senior Peer Support She soon realized that kitchen work was too physically Volunteer with Jewish demanding and was causing back injuries. Because her real Seniors Alliance for passion was to help others in the community, she worked as the past three years. a scheduler at her cousin’s Homemaking Agency, sending Born in Vancouver, homemakers to assist seniors and families. as a young child she observed her Catherine then took a course to work with First Nations mother who was a communities. She became a foster mother for mostly First school teacher and Nations children and teenagers with Plea Community caregiver towards Services. She was a foster mother with the Ministry of Child seniors. Her mother and Family Services for 15 years. en a turning point came from a large occurred when Catherine got a job with Paci c Association family of 15 children and Catherine was particularly of First Nations Women. She worked full-time, getting close to one aunt who was a free spirit, who worked as assignments to work with First Nation seniors. Shen found an artist, clothes designer and had her own art gallery. this job and her job as a foster parent to be extremely Catherine remembers wonderful times spent with her rewarding. She then began to be a supervisor of foster children aunt exploring the Bay area of California at age 16 in the having visits with their biological parents. ree years ago early 1960s during summer holidays in grade 11. After she saw an ad in the Georgia Straight newspaper for Senior these two months, Catherine was encouraged to pursue Peer Support Volunteers and took the training with Grace her passions. e need to be independent and push the Hann which further enhanced her helping and listening boundaries became a theme for Catherine in her adult skills. Today Catherine is busy with JSA, Paci c Association life. As a teenager, she spent her grade 12 living apart of First Nations Women and her grandchildren. So we salute from her parents, who had moved to the Kootenays. Catherine for her nurturing and adventurous spirit. She decided to stay in Vancouver, lodging with a Jewish family in exchange for babysitting their two sons. After ank you Catherine! graduating from Eric Hamber Secondary with Honours, Catherine attended Langara College to pursue liberal arts. Charles Leibovitch, MSW, is But life throws curve balls and at the age of 18, Catherine JSA’s Senior Peer Support Services became pregnant. She was now a single mother to her son. Coordinator. He initiated the In order to nancially support herself and her son, she took Program in December 2011. He has a government manpower employment program and was a long history of caring for seniors. trained in bookkeeping and typing. Not her preference
26 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 THE NEW NORMAL AT JSA’S PEER SUPPORT SERVICES Written by Grace Hann
he date was March 9th when I heard the news. “B.C. has recorded its rst COVID-19 related death.” It will be forever embedded in my memory. MyT mind raced ahead! How many people will be aected? How many of our loved ones will suer? We knew by then that it was the elderly who were most vulnerable and it was at a care facility where the rst case was reported. is is the population we serve at Jewish Seniors Alliance. JSA Peer Support Volunteers meet via Zoom e news headlines were relentless. “From one COVID-19 June 2020 lockdown to another, “Canada’s seniors face new reality”, “28 residents, 27 sta at Vancouver’s Haro Park care centre anxiety surrounding COVID-19, as well as a detailed list of conrmed to have COVID–19”. How were we to support resources available during this demanding and dicult time. seniors during the novel coronavirus? Collaboration with the South For us at Jewish Seniors Alliance we soon discovered that Vancouver Seniors Network we would have to adapt to the new normal. Our model of In order to enhance community awareness concerning emotional support consists of trained volunteers visiting resources, I joined a weekly webinar with Michael Lee, seniors at residential care homes as well as in their private M.L.A. for Vancouver/Langara and Andrea Krombein, homes. Reluctantly, we stopped all home visits. We were Seniors Outreach Coordinator of Marpole Oakridge already aware of the social isolation within the elderly Family Place. is has been a great forum to raise population, only now it had been exacerbated. awareness of the emotional support and resources JSA is More Volunteers, More Support, oering and to collaborate with South Vancouver Seniors More Interaction, More Training Network. is partnership has been very successful as I also provided two separate training sessions for their Sta and volunteers resolved to help more than ever. sta and volunteers in order to reach out to more isolated Volunteers quickly jumped in with oers to connect by seniors through telephone calling. phone with the seniors we support on a more frequent basis. ZOOM became the new method of communication Jewish Seniors Alliance will continue to work diligently in between sta and volunteers. Bi-monthly volunteer support supporting all seniors who are facing extreme isolation and meetings became bi-weekly—in order to stay connected loneliness. If you or a family member is experiencing and focussed on senior isolation. this, please do not hesitate to contact our o ce at (604) 267-1555 for support. If you would like to join As time progressed, anxiety became the most frequent our team of volunteers at this crucial time, we will be topic of concern, for both family members and their conducting virtual training and we would love to hear loved ones. Families asked, “Who will connect with my from you. Our community needs you! mom, now that I am unable to visit? Who will be there for our parents if they fall prey to this vicious disease? Will our parents survive?” We started to hear more about Grace Hann is the trainer of individuals we knew who had become sick with the virus. volunteers of Senior Peer Support Who would be next? Services. She has been training volunteers and supporting seniors JSA volunteers received more support and training with for the past 20 years. a focus on listening skills and an understanding of the
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 27 DURING AND AFTER THE • With less or no face-to-face contact with vulnerable older adults, we will COVID 19 PA NDEMIC rely more and more on electronic devices, and increase our electronic WE ARE OUR BROTHERS’ AND OUR SISTERS’ KEEPERS contacts and be more innovative.
Written by Kenneth Levitt • We will need to know and teach the best quality of training and support for our volunteers in the "new normal." n March 15, Leah and I died from Covid-19. e demographic • We need to advocate to local and returned from a Mexican of older adults who live on their own, provincial authorities to rebalance their vacation two weeks earlier are isolated, lonely and marginalized spending priorities. thanO originally planned. About the adds another layer to their overall at- fth day of our holiday we decided risk situation. • Seniors must not be seen as a "throw that we did not want to become ill away" group if it is a matter of limited As of the writing of this column (mid- in a foreign country. It was prudent resources. May) there is a dull light at the end to return to Canada. Fifteen family of the tunnel. ere is some easing members and close friends cancelled • Seniors will be at risk until a up of the restrictions and suggestions their trips to join us due to Covid-19. Covid-19 vaccine is developed and imposed by our Provincial government We felt better o physically and made available free of charge. and our Provincial Health Ocer for emotionally at home close to family British Columbia, Dr. Bonnie Henry. • Governments should consider a and close to all the personal resources e information that is presented has Guaranteed Annual Income for low- including medical if they might be helped to reinforce the dos and don’ts income seniors. needed. to remain healthy and virus free. • We must advocate for more funding Older adults do not have the same for services to seniors who choose to immune system as younger adults remain in their own homes also known and children. Our immune system is as "Aging in Place". in decline and this decline means we We felt better o do not respond as eciently to new physically and • We must support and encourage or even familiar viruses. When we isolated seniors to reach out, nd encounter a virus like Covid-19 our emotionally at hobbies, read books and maintain their whole body is ambushed; our lungs are home close physical activities. It is known that attacked; a serious symptom is gasping reduction in physical activity with more for air. e most severe cases of this to family. sedentary behavior places older adults pandemic require hospitalization and at even higher risk. care in an ICU (intensive care unit). A • We must encourage retail stores to small percentage of people succumb to Looking to the future keep separate hours for seniors. the disease but the majority survive. But what happens when we get a "go • Ensure that older at-risk adults have Older adults with a known ahead" from the health authorities ” access to high quality, healthy foods. compromised immune system become to return to our way of daily living A healthy diet will contribute to better the most vulnerable. We witnessed without restrictions? I believe and cognitive functions and to physical this in Ontario and Quebec nursing hope this edict is a long, long way wellbeing. homes and to a lesser extent in British in the future. Let us turn to what Columbia nursing homes. Elderly might be the "new normal" that will • Given the ecacy of the High Dosage persons make up a disproportionate provide us with fair guidelines for u shot for seniors, it should be readily percentage (80%) of persons who have wellbeing and moving forward. available and free of charge.
28 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 and encourage them to take control of the decisions that a ect them. Pandemic Poem • We need to understand that Written by Lynn Ungar the world, our country and our community will never be the same. What if you thought of it • We need to remind ourselves that as the Jews consider the Sabbath— seniors are taxpayers, volunteers and voters who have contributed greatly the most sacred of times? to our wonderful democracy. Cease from travel. Five things to remember: Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, Binny Goldman wears a mask designed 1. Wash hands vigorously and do not by daughter Shari Goldman-Lutsky. on trying to make the world (photo Herb Goldman) touch your face or eyes di erent than it is. 2. Maintain physical distancing The role of Jewish Sing. Pray. Touch only those 3. Stay at home when sick Seniors Alliance of to whom you commit your life. Greater Vancouver 4. Wear facial masks when you may Center down. not be able to maintain physical is brings us to the role of JSA as And when your body has become distancing the leader in Peer Support Services still, (PSS) in the Lower Mainland. As 5. Be patient and kind to each other reach out with your heart. a progressive organization we have already adapted in many ways to If there was a sixth thing to remember Know that we are connected the "new normal" as above noted, it would be to act on the sage advice of in ways that are terrifying and but there is more that can and Dr. Bonnie Henry. beautiful. should be done: To paraphrase FDR " e only thing (You could hardly deny it now.) • We need to be vigilant to ensure we have to fear is complacency". Know that our lives that our clients are not `socially are in one another’s hands. excluded.' ** anks to Pam Ottem, JSA Board member responsible for PSS, and (Surely, that has come clear.) • We need to understand better the Dan Levitt, CEO of Tabor Village, Do not reach out your hands. barriers our clients face: cognitive who contributed many thoughts to impairment, physical and emotional this column. Reach out your heart. challenges, lack of consistent social Reach out your words. interaction, self-neglect, poor Reach out all the tendrils nutrition and general self-disregard. Ken Levitt, MSW, is a former of compassion that move, invisibly, • We need to advocate for more CEO of the Louis where we cannot touch. resources and support to allow Brier Home and Promise this world your love-- seniors to lead as normal and as Hospital. He independent a life as possible which has an extensive for better or for worse, includes expanded services and care. background in corrections, child in sickness and in health, welfare, public assistance and • We need to reduce risk-taking by services to seniors. Ken has served so long as we all shall live. seniors who are vulnerable, without on the Board of JSA since 2011 diminishing their independence and is a Past President.
29 FEATURE accept or refuse? DO YOUR LOVED ONES A FAVOUR: • CPR TELL THEM HOW YOU WANT TO DIE • All, some, or no life support or life- prolonging medical interventions END OF LIFE CARE OPTIONS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA • A trial period of life support and Written by Anthony DuMoulin life-prolonging medical interventions, allowing a natural death to occur if your condition is not improving? hile our ultimate death is and wishes regarding future health Your advance care plan should at a a certainty, when and how care treatment and talking about them minimum include these three things: we will die is unknowable. with selected family members or friends WAnd though death is inevitable, it as well as your doctor. When people • Having conversations with selected remains a taboo subject for most. None you trust know what is important to family members, friends, your family of us knows what the future will bring. you, it will be easier for them to make doctor and, if applicable, your spiritual It is better to be prepared, so that if treatment decisions on your behalf. leader, about your beliefs, your values you become unable to make medical and your wishes. Health care providers will always oer care decisions, your designated family medically appropriate health care members and health care providers, if • Writing down your beliefs, values and based on clinical assessment. ey will you have talked to them, will have the wishes for future health care treatment. want to ensure that any symptoms like knowledge and condence to make pain, dizziness, nausea, bleeding or • Writing down the contact information those decisions for you. infection are understood and addressed. for the people who qualify to be on your Temporary Substitute Decision Advance care planning As long as you can understand and communicate, your health care provider Maker list (see below), or, if you As long as you are capable of will explain the medically appropriate prefer, the contact information for the understanding and communicating care best for you, including any risks, Representative you have chosen and eectively with your doctor, nurse or benets or alternatives. ey will also named in an enhanced Representation other health care provider, you will ask if you have any questions and if you Agreement, which is the one which be asked to make your own health wish to accept or refuse the proposed allows you to name a person to make care treatment decisions. But a serious health care treatment. personal care decisions and some health accident or illness can result in you care decisions, including decisions to being incapable of making your own Some of the hardest decisions deal accept or refuse life support or life- health care decisions at the time care is with the use of life support and life- prolonging medical interventions needed. is is why thinking about your prolonging medical interventions. ese for you. (If you choose to have a preferences and talking to your future can include a ventilator to help with Representative Agreement, I recommend decision-makers now is so important. breathing, tube feeding, kidney dialysis, you seek legal advice). Making an advance care plan is a choice or CPR to restart the heart and lungs. that will help alleviate some of the stress If you were to have a life-threatening Bear in mind that your health and your family and friends could face if illness or injury, would you want to personal circumstances will change over they are required to make important health care decisions for you, including who, exactly, you want your doctor to approach to learn about your wishes. None of us knows what the future will
Advance care planning begins by bring. It is better to be prepared. thinking about your beliefs, values 30 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 ” condition the option to end their life with the assistance of a doctor or nurse practitioner.
If your beliefs and values allow you to consider MAiD in the face of intolerable suering, you should start by speaking with your doctor or your local health authority. For a variety of reasons, not all doctors will provide MAiD, and no one is required by law to do so. For some, MAiD may conict with their personal beliefs or professional ethics. However, a patient can expect to be time. As long as you are capable, you Many people choose to stay at home provided with information on how to may change or cancel your advance care right to the end of their lives while access this service. Health care providers plan at any time and for any reason. receiving in-home palliative care from must not discriminate against patients Be sure to notify your doctor and your specialized health care providers. But with dierent beliefs or values dierent family members/friends of all changes if you are in the last few months of from their own, and must provide an you make. your life and feel that you are no longer eective transfer of care to another able to manage at home, a hospice may Palliative Care—at home health care professional who does oer be a good option for you. Hospices MAiD. and at a Hospice are meant to feel more like a home When thinking about what to cover in than a hospital. ey are designed and To be eligible for MAiD, a patient must your advance care plan, you might want furnished to provide a peaceful, home- meet ALL of the criteria listed below: like environment for you and your to expressly include your wish to receive • be registered under BC Medical palliative care if you are suering from family while you receive end-of-life a serious illness or condition. Palliative palliative care. • be at least 18 years old and capable of care is specialized medical care which making health care decisions For more information on the delivery of focuses on providing patients with palliative care in each of these settings, voluntary relief from the symptoms, pain and • have made a request for search the B.C. Health Ministry website stress of a serious illness, whatever the medical assistance in dying that was not or contact your local health authority. diagnosis. e goal of palliative care is made under any external pressure. is request must be in writing and signed not to prolong life, nor to shorten it. Medical Assistance and dated in front of two independent e goal is to improve quality of life for in Dying both the patient and the family, and can witnesses You and your family will have many be provided in a variety of locations, • have given informed consent after decisions to make when faced with including the patient’s home, in a having been informed of the other end-of-life care in the face of intolerable hospice, in a residential care facility or means that are available to relieve their suering. It is important for you to in a hospital. Palliative care is provided suering, including palliative care, and by a team of doctors, nurses and other know and understand all the options specialists who work with a patient’s available in such circumstances. • on assessment by two independent doctors or nurse practitioners, are other doctors to provide an extra layer Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) determined to have a grievous and of support. While often associated with was made legal in Canada in 2016. incurable medical condition, which end-of-life situations, palliative care is It provides eligible patients who are means: appropriate at any age and at any stage experiencing intolerable suering due in a serious illness and can be provided to a grievous and incurable medical Continued on page 33... alongside other appropriate treatments. ” SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 31 HEALTH AND WELLNESS by targeting the aging process directly. Some academics posit that aging THINKING OF AGING AS A DISEASE qualies as a syndrome. ey dene a IS AGING NATUR AL, A DISEASE THAT WE CAN TREAT, syndrome as a group of symptoms that consistently occur together. So they see OR BOTH? aging as an umbrella term that may Written by Shanie Levin struggle to be identied as a disease, but does qualify as a syndrome.
Regenerative medicine Disease’s de nition reects our scienti c knowledge and and bionic medicine cultural history. A changing understanding of physiology alters In medicine, bionics means the what we consider “disease.” Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis were replacement or enhancement of organs once considered “normal aging” and as consequence was felt to or other body parts by mechanical be inevitable, a word that often is taken to mean untreatable. versions. Bionic implants dier from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function very closely, or even s aging natural or a disease conditions as Parkinson’s and dementia. surpassing it. we can treat, or both? Is this a We can look at the example of A lot of work is being done in philosophical, scientic or medical cataracts. With the advent of modern regenerative medicine. is involves Iquestion? Is not the aging process and cataract surgery we no longer see many the regrowing of damaged tissue, such the result—death—not inevitable? blind elderly, as we did in previous as cartilage, ligaments, tendons, bones, en is it not a natural process? times. e medical condition of the etc. Once this is achieved it would Modern medicine has succeeded in eye being attacked now is macular preclude surgeries such as hip or knee nding cures and treatments for so degeneration. replacements. Another area of research many of the diseases and conditions of is called “epigenetic reprogramming”. aging that the average age of death in is involves repairing DNA and countries with robust medical systems A new approach damaged cells. A leader is this eld is has been delayed by decades. Is this aims to prevent and David Sinclair of Harvard Medical a natural phenomenon? What do the School. His new book is called, experts say? treat age-related Lifespan—Why We Age, and Why We Problems of aging seen diseases by targeting Don't Have To. Geriatrician Dr. Peter Boling has stated that “advocating for as pathology to be cured the aging process or corrected more basic research funding to study directly. the biological causes of aging is a ere are a myriad of opinions in legitimate scientic objective and may the scientic world. Since many lead to better health. But it will not advances have been made in the ultimately uncover a fountain of youth”. diseases common in aging such as We have to take into account that grant high blood pressure, heart ailments, requests focused on curing common Researchers at Stanford University diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis, diseases are more likely to succeed than report that they can rejuvenate human some academics would say that as these those that suggest that aging is natural cells by reprogramming them back to diseases can be successfully controlled, and thus not worthy of nancial” a youthful state. ey hope that the then aging should be considered a input. A new approach, known as technique will help in the treatment disease or pathology. Indeed many “regeneration biotechnology”, aims to of diseases, such as osteoarthritis and labs are working on “cures” for such prevent and treat age-related diseases muscle wasting that are caused by the
32 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 aging of tissue cells. A major cause of As our numbers grow the population question is: As our numbers grow, and aging is thought to be the errors that over seventy is gaining power. We our ability to treat diseases of aging accumulate in the epigenome, the vote in great numbers and thus have continue to improve, how do we want system of proteins that packages the inuence on government and on how to use these abilities in the future? DNA and controls access to its genes. research dollars are spent. is is a e Stanford team, led by Tapash Jay new phenomenon, as in the past we Peter Diamandis, a space, technology, Sarkar, Dr. omas A. Rando and were largely ignored. We need to begin aeronautics and medicine pioneer Vittorio Sebastiano, say their method, using our inuence for our betterment. states: “ e new eld in medicine designed to reverse these errors and A good example of societies’ failure in known as “longevity” is of interest walk back the cells to their youthful regards to seniors’ care at this point in to everyone. 100 will be the new 60. state, does indeed restore the cells’ vigor time is evidenced in long-term senior e average human health span will and eliminate signs of aging. e study care homes. e present pandemic has increase by 10+ years this decade.” is denitely a step forward in the goal highlighted these failures where eighty of reversing cellular aging. per cent of the deaths in Canada have Shanie Levin, is occurred in long-term care homes. an executive board Using the power of member of JSA an aging and healthy us, whether we consider aging and on the editorial population natural or pathological, i.e., a disease, board of Senior is not really the question we should Line magazine. e population of Canada is aging. We be asking. e more important have a record of 10,000 centenarians.
DO YOUR LOVED ONES A FAVOUR many matters I have not covered, but my hope is that there is enough here to allow you to begin a conversation with ...Continued from Page 31. to pursue a medically assisted death those in your life who you want to make whether their natural death is decisions for you when you cannot. ~ they have a serious and incurable reasonably foreseeable or not. is is a lot to cover in one conversation. illness, disease or disability A patient who has requested MAiD You can have as many conversations ~ they are in an advanced state of must be given the opportunity to as you need. JUST GET STARTED, decline that cannot be reversed withdraw their request throughout the before unwelcome circumstances make process, including immediately before it too late. You will be doing yourself ~ the illness, disease, disability or state the medical assistance is administered, and your loved ones a big favour. of decline causes enduring physical and this withdrawal need not be in or psychological suering that is writing or in any other form. Just an intolerable and cannot be relieved indication of a change of mind will do. Tony DuMoulin is under conditions that the patient And be aware that only patients who are a founder of the law considers acceptable themselves capable of giving consent can rm of DuMoulin request MAiD. A request by a substitute ~ their natural death becomes Boskovich, where decision maker or by way of an advance reasonably foreseeable* he practised commercial and real directive is not valid. estate law for 40 years. He has * On February 24, 2020 the Liberal Conclusion a long history of involvement in government of Canada introduced a Jewish organizations and municipal bill to further amend the Criminal ere is much more information projects. Tony is on the Executive Code to, among other things related available on end-of-life options than Board of JSA. to MAiD, allow eligible persons I have touched on in this article, and
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 33 SUPPORTING SENIORS: SOUTH VANCOUVER SENIORS NETWORK
Written by Michael Lee, MLA
upporting seniors in our 20 community booths and attended community has been an by nearly 200 seniors and caregivers at important focus for me, and it the Marpole Neighbourhood House. hasS been wonderful to Co-Chair the e Seniors Forum had so many South Vancouver Seniors Network terric and engaging speakers who Michael Lee together with Andrea Krombein, the gave very informative presentations MLA for Vancouver-Langara Seniors Outreach Coordinator of on topics such as navigating seniors Marpole Oakridge Family Place. services, accessing critical resources community organizations and their for caregivers, seniors mental health services and programs. e South Vancouver Seniors Network services and support, and addressing was re-established in April 2019 as an social isolation faced by many seniors. • Community Connectors for umbrella network of 25 community A second Seniors Forum scheduled Seniors Volunteer Team: to reach organizations serving seniors and for June was in the planning stages out to isolated seniors in the Marpole caregivers, and focuses on strengthening when COVID-19 hit and has been area. Our thanks to the amazing communication, collaborations postponed. Grace Hann, who is helping to train and initiatives that support seniors interested volunteers for this seniors issues and services. We do that by In the face of the challenges of outreach pilot program. We can’t wait bringing together community leaders, COVID-19, the SVSN currently has for our Community Connectors to do organizations, sta and volunteers, the following initiatives: just that — connect with seniors in and caregivers and seniors in the South Marpole! Weekly ursday COVID-19 Vancouver area. e SVSN has received • Webinar and Information Sessions strong and ongoing participation and : To learn more about any of support from community partner moderated by myself, with Andrea these initiatives, volunteer as a organizations, including from the Krombein and Grace Hann as regular Community Connector, and/or sign Jewish Seniors Alliance and the much panelists. Guest panelists join the up for the SVSN newsletter, please appreciated contributions by Ken discussion on topics ranging from reach out to my Vancouver-Langara Levitt, Larry Shapiro and Grace Hann. social isolation, elder abuse and neglect, Community O ce by calling to mental and physical health supports. 604-660-8380 or emailing e SVSN continues to organize [email protected]. Biweekly Newsletters initiatives and programs to help support • : provide seniors. In February, we hosted the information on supports for seniors in South Vancouver and updates on local South Vancouver Seniors Forum with Michael Lee was elected the MLA for Vancouver-Langara in 2017. Prior to his election, Michael was a business lawyer and partner with Lawson e South Vancouver Seniors Network was Lundell LLP. Michael has served on re-established in April 2019 as an umbrella various Boards including YMCA. past Chair of Arts Umbrella and Alumni network of 25 community organizations UBC, Vice-Chair and Board member serving seniors and caregivers. of Science World BC, SUCCESS and Leadership Vancouver, and more. 34 SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 ” קורונה כחול לבן :מאפיינים תרבותים מורשת האיסור הגורף על התקהלות בעקבות בהתמודדות הישראלית מול הקורונה התפרצות הקורונה, היווה אתגר לא פשוט לישראלים, שהם חברתיים ומשפחתיים מאת אילנה שפירא מטבעם. אתגר שהפך מאתגר אף יותר בחודשי האביב הכוללים רצף תאריכים מרכזיים בהוויה הישראלית .
לשרוק בחושך ומחזקת מספר מאפיינים ישראלים, יום השואה ויום הזיכרון צויינו במסגרת מאת יענק'לה רוטבליט המהווים מקור לגאווה ישראלית וביניהם, פרוייקטים דיגיטלים חדשים שהותאמו ערבות הדדית, יצירתיות, שמירה על למצב של בידוד חברתי ואפשרו לציבור כל אחד, לפעמים, שורק בחושך המורשת והומור . הישראלי לתמוך ולהפגין סולידריות ושותפות גורל עם ניצולי השואה ומשפחות זה נעים, זה תמים לשרוק בחושך ערבות הדדית השכול. ואילו בליל הסדר, הוחלפו החגיגות המשפחתיות סביב שולחן הסדר, בחגיגות גם אני לעצמי, גם אחר במקומי למדינת ישראל יש הסטוריה מפוארת עם הקהילה, כאשר ישראלים רבים יצאו בקידוש ערך הערבות הדדית. ואכן, עם ,כל אחד קצת פוחד לבד בחושך למרפסות ושרו את שירי החג מההגדה של תחילת המשבר, נחתו בישראל חצי מיליון פסח, עם שכניהם. כל אחד קצת בודד בתוך החושך ישראלים, אשר 'חזרו הבייתה' בסיוע המדינה. מדינת ישראל נרתמה להחזיר הומור שום דבר באמת, רק טיפה לא שקט הבייתה מטיילים )ברובם צעירים,אחרי הישראלים נוהגים בדרך כלל להגיב תיכף זה יעבור הצבא( מרחבי העולם ובינהם 1100 מטיילים ישראלים אותם החזירה ישראל בהומור למצבי לחץ. תיכף ידליקו אור בטיסות מיוחדות מפרו. זאת על מנת בתקופת מלחמת ששת הימים זיהו חוקרים למנוע קבלה של טיפול רפואי לקוי, (בעקבות משבר הקורונה, אמני ישראל את תופעת ה'מגנט', תופעה המלמדת על בעיקר במדינות עולם שלישי, וכן על מנת ביצעו הקלטה מחודשת לשיר "לשרוק הפגת פחדים באמצעות הומור. החוקרים לתת מענה במקרים בהם השלטונות בחושך", כהצדעה לאנשי הרפואה צפו בילדי קיבוץ במקלטים וראו שכאשר .) דחפו תיירים החוצה, כמו תאילנד ודרום אחד הילדים מספר בדיחות ומצחיק את אמריקה. כמו כן, ישראלים אשר חזרו חבריו, רמת החרדה שלהם יורדת . לישראל לאחר שהות ממושכת בחו"ל ימי הקורונה שנפלו על העולם כרעם קיבלו הקלות של ביטוח לאומי, דמי אבטלה ואכן, עם פרוץ המגפה, כמיטב המסורת ביום בהיר כפו על העולם סוג של פסק וטיפול רפואי . הישראלית, הרשתות החברתיות זמן מהמירוץ ה"ביוני" אליו הוא נקלע הוצפו בסרטונים ותמונות של ישראלים
בעידן הנוכחי. פסק זמן המאפשר לכלל יצירתיות המתבדחים על השלכות הקורונה האנושות ולכל אחד ואחת מאיתנו, לעצור המלחמה בנגיף הקורונה הביאה והתגובות שלנו למצב החדש . לרגע, להתבונן וללמוד מחדש את עצמינו להתגייסות תעשיית ההייטק הישראלית כבודדים וכחברה . ולשורה של פיתוחים חדשניים העתידים הלן ראסל, חוקרת אושר, משתפת ברב לסייע במאבק בנגיף. בין הפיתוחים המכר 'האטלס של האושר' את ממצאי החדשנים ניתן לראות רובוטים המאפשרים המחקר שלה, המלמדים כי כל מדינה פעילות לצד בני אדם, פריסה מהירה של מאושרת על פי דרכה ועל פי ההרגלים אוטומציה ובטחון מקסימלי לסובבים אותם. התרבותיים האופיינים לה, בדומה לכך, פיתוח זה עשוי לאפשר מתן פתרון יצירתי אופן התגובה וההתמודדות של המדינות בבתי חולים ובמפעלים כמו למשל חלוקת השונות בעולם עם מגפת הקורונה מזון ותרופות לחולים בבידוד. בין הפיתוחים משקפים את מאפייני התרבות והחברה יש גם פיתוח ההופך מפוח הנשמה ידני במדינות השונות . למכונת הנשמה חשמלית ופיתוח אמצעי זיהוי חולי קורונה שמצבם מחמיר ע”י התבוננות בתגובות של החברה טביעת האצבע של קולם ופיתוח לתרופה הישראלית להתפרצות הקורונה, משקפת ולחיסון נגד וירוס הקורונה אשר כפי גם היא, את מאפייני החברה הישראלית . הנראה יושלם עוד השנה . Continued on page 36...
SENIOR LINE | VOLUME 27 2 2020 35 INSPIR ATION ...Continued from Page 35.
A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS
Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting, (צילום: מתוך הרשתות החברתיות .) Walkers and handrails and new dental ttin’s Bundles of magazines tied up with string, וכך, התמודדות עם המציאות .ese are a few of my favorite things החדשה והלא נעימה שהקורונה מביאה איתה, ,Cadillacs, cataracts, hearing aids, glasses היא גם מעלה על נס את ,Polident, Fixodent, false teeth in glasses המאפיינים הייחודים והחיוביים של החברה הישראלית Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings, ומזכירה לנו שלהיות ישראלים, זו זכות . ese are a few of my favorite things.
CHORUS: English Summary
When the pipes leak, Corona Blue and White: Cultural Characteristics in the Israeli Coping with the Corona Pandemic When the bones creak, When the knees go bad, Written by Ilana Shapira I simply remember my favorite things, And then I don’t feel so bad. ere are many things ahead of us to learn about e Coronavirus Pandemic and its outcomes, but some Hot tea and crumpets, things can be already be observed, among them are And corn pads for bunions, No spicy hot food the cultural characteristics of places around the world And no food with onions, and how they react to the challenges of the Pandemic. What can we learn about Israeli society and its Bathrobes and heat pads and hot meals they bring, reaction to Covid-19? ese are a few of my favorite things. To Whistle in the Dark CHORUS: by Yanka’la Rothblit
Back pains, confused brains, And no fear of sinning, Sometimes each of us whistles in the dark in bones and fractures And hair that is thinning, It is pleasant, it is naive to whistle in the dark As we won’t mention Our short shrunken frames, I do it for myself, also someone does it instead of me When we remember our favorite things. Each person is a bit scared alone in the darkness Every person is a bit lonely in the darkness CHORUS: It’s nothing really, just a bit of unease Soon it will pass When the joints ache, Soon they will turn on the light When the hips break, When the eyes grow dim, en I remember the great life I've had Ilana Shapira, Educator, Ivrikal. And then I don't feel soooo baaaaaaad! Founder of Ilana has over twenty years’ experience in Jewish education in North America, as an educator, administrator as well as training teachers in teaching Hebrew as a second language and in developing Hebrew teaching units.
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