By , Special to JTNews
Dina Elikan, MSW/ACSW, the new director of Senior Services at Jewish Family Service, says her 97-year-old grandmother, who still lives independently, is her role model for senior living and one of the reasons Dina chose this career direction. “The most common response to why people choose to work in this field,” she says, “is the positive influence of a grandparent.”
As a career choice, Dina says she has never had a moment of doubt that it was right for her. She arrived in Seattle this past summer with a 15-year history of working with seniors in New York where she oversaw private foundation and Jewish Federation grants for geriatric services delivered to the community. The focus of the services was for the middle group of frail, homebound seniors who don’t need to be in a nursing home or assisted living facility but who are lonely or socially isolated. Their goal, often, is to remain at home.
“We have the same issue here,” Dina says of Seattle. In fact, it is a nationwide problem. “There are relatively few programs designed for middle-income, older adults. There’s a gap between the very poor and the wealthy. You have to be able to afford services or be on Medicaid. But there is a large percentage of socially isolated older adults falling right in between with few services available. This is something we can address.”
The first step in providing needed services for seniors is to create a plan of Care Management to enable clients to be as independent as possible as long as possible. Services include counseling and family consultation to manage the changing family dynamics, roles and responsibilities. After establishing a care plan, Senior Services provides case management, Friendly Visitors and Telephone Reassurance volunteers. JFS also acts as an Elder Support Network for adult children living outside of the Puget Sound Region to assist their aging relatives living here.
JFS Senior Services also works closely with one of the agency’s newest programs, HomeCare Associates, a fee-for-service program offering skilled, pre-screened and trained home-care workers, sensitive to Jewish customs and culture, to meet the specific needs of seniors.
Elikan, whose training was at Columbia University, believes JFS is in a good position for providing the services seniors need. “A lot of seniors and family members don’t know where to turn. We’ve done a good job with the clients we have and now; with the senior population growing and the changing dynamics in that population, it’s time to make sure everyone who can benefit knows what we do.”