As it nears the century mark, Beth Goldstein’s organization is preparing for changes.

As the Jewish Home for the Aged quickly approaches its centennial year, exciting planned changes promise to transform the skilled nursing facility.

Beth Goldstein

The community where JHA is located also has evolved over the past 90-plus years. Once at the center of Jewish life in New Haven, as time passed and demographics changed, the center found itself apart from its core constituency. That’s why the board is looking to relocate the facility over the next several years while taking pains to retain the current location or partner with another organization to operate it.

“I was drawn to JHA because of its Jewish mission as well as what the board was planning for the future,” Goldstein said. “It’s a chance to move to a new facility and provide new services such as independent living, assisted living, home care, and other community-based programs.”

“There is a large Jewish contingent in New Haven, and this area used to be predominantly Jewish, but now it’s a more inner-city-type population,” said Goldstein, who estimated the Jewish population of the center at between 40% and 50%. “We want to continue to meet current needs but also go back to our roots.” The board is currently investigating sites for a possible new facility, but it doesn’t have a definite timetable.

Goldstein, who’s been a licensed administrator for more than 17 years, was an administrator at a facility in New York for 15 of those years. She indicated that the move to the Jewish Home for the Aged was the right decision at the right time. “I had done everything there was to be done at the other facility,” Goldstein said. “It was time for a new challenge.”

She joined a facility that’s well-regarded in the community. JHA is a charter member of the Quality First initiative introduced in 2002 and endorsed by leading groups that care for seniors. Although the center does struggle with turnover in key areas such as registered nurses and therapists, many of JHA’s 350 employees have been with the center for years. A few have been working at the facility for 20-plus years.

The center has undertaken several initiatives to improve the life of residents and offer more training for staff. The cultural changes at the facility are designed to create a more homelike atmosphere for residents while providing better working conditions for employees. The key is to try to adapt to the needs of center residents, rather than trying to adapt residents to rigid center policies and procedures.

JHA employees are represented by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199. The center pays into the Connecticut Nursing Homes Training and Upgrading Fund, which provides educational opportunities for 1199 members. JHA has been working on several training initiatives with 1199 funds, especially with the rehab unit. If initiatives prove successful, they are rolled out to the remainder of the facility.

The Pearl Rosenstein Center for Rehabilitation, a 32-bed short-term rehab facility, opened in spring 2006 in a renovated part of the center, an effort by the board of directors to improve service to the community while increasing the Medicare and private insurance dollars flowing into the facility. Like nursing homes all over the country, JHA relies heavily on Medicaid reimbursements, which are usually insufficient to provide a high quality of care. The dedicated team of physical, occupational, and speech therapists works with clients throughout the center, offering one-on-one therapy, group exercise, individualized discharge planning, inter-therapy coordination, interdisciplinary care planning, and in-home assessment.

Nursing home residents are supported by a well-trained staff and have ample opportunity to participate fully in the life of the center. From ethnic cooking programs to cabaret performances and daily devotional services, residents can participate as much or as little as they want. Residents can select from a full schedule of educational, spiritual, recreational, physical, or intellectual programs that are both stimulating and fun.

Goldstein said the laughter of children often fills the halls as family members stop by to visit. Residents also can play bingo, garden in the courtyard, participate in trivia games, and enjoy the company of pets during animal visitations.

As the Jewish Home for the Aged looks back fondly over nearly 100 years of service to the New Haven community, its leaders and board of directors are poised to take charge of its future and to rededicate efforts to provide quality nursing care.

“I’m blessed to have a supportive board that’s dedicated to providing quality services,” Goldstein said. “Many of our clients don’t have any family and really need somebody to care for them and make their lives meaningful.”

Grayson Walker, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , is a freelance writer based in Atlanta.