Dear friends,
We continue to write letters and work on advocacy efforts on both a State and national level. On the State level, we are carefully monitoring proposed legislation that would impact nursing homes. We’re very involved with the New Jersey Hospital Association and serve on the Long Term Care Task Force and will likely have some opportunities to testify in the weeks ahead. On a more grassroots level we are still lobbying the Commissioner of Public Health to provide full reopening plans, including the re-opening of the beauty salons. We are hearing that there will be a reopening plan coming out of the Department of Health late next week and we look forward to seeing that document. Nationally, we have been very involved with LeadingAge to push forward legislation to help our industry. Our Act for Older Adults effort has been underway for a number of weeks and we believe is close to action. If you would like to voice your support for older adult services and supports, you can join the effort by clicking here: https://mobilize4change.org/ahLGb2m. It only takes a moment but every voice matters in this effort. I had the opportunity to be a part of virtual national press conference on that topic this week and here’s a link to an article that talks about that event in a little more detail: https://www.mcknights.com/news/we-have-been-in-a-fight-for-our-lives-providers-spending-hundreds-of-thousands-on-testing-ppe/.
Around the Jewish Home Family, there were many engaging activities this week and, of course, many outdoor family visits. We are happy to see visitors back on our campuses and thrilled to see loved ones reuniting. At Jewish Home Assisted Living this week, we had some interesting, and very different, biographies including George Washington, Winston Churchill and Shirley Temple. We traveled widely from Croatia’s Sava Floodplains to London and then to Danube National Park. We exercised with Maryellen on one day and Gina on another and then Patrick joined us on the back patio for a third rousing fitness event. Some of this week’s entertainment offerings including Cirque du Soleil’s “Kurious,” Lord of the Dance, John Wilson on Broadway and the ballet “Raymonda.” We also observed Tisha B’Av with services, led by Rabbi Korenblit on both Wednesday evening and Thursday. Our Happy Hour treat this week? Fruit smoothies which were a refreshing treat on a warm and humid day.
Jewish Home at Rockleigh events began on Sunday with Chair Fitness and Guitar Strings. Kaplen 2 unit elders enjoyed an afternoon of music and everyone loved our Sunday evening film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” Monday’s highlight was a personal crafts program making trees through the use of sponge painting. Each tree was beautiful and completely unique. We also had Favorite Tunes on the Rubin unit and exercise on the Seiden unit. Rubin elders had an evening charades program that was both lively and filled with laughter. On Tuesday we celebrating July birthdays on all of the units and also had Fun with Alexa and Say it with Music. Wednesday’s outdoor patio program included exercise followed by music and movement and a good time was had by all. We also had an interesting program on NASA, which was established in 1958 and elders had memories about the growth of the space program that they were happy to share. Thursday included Tisha B’Av discussions with Rabbi Feld which he conducted on both the Rubin and Kaplen 2 units. We rounded out the week on Friday with arts and crafts, Bingo, Men’s Club, music trivia and LaughActive yoga.
This was a LeadingAge blog week and here is the link: https://leadingage.org/members/agesim-era-covid-19. As always, your feedback is welcome.
Be well,
Carol Silver Elliott
President/CEO
The Jewish Home Family
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10 Link Drive Rockleigh, NJ 07647 | 685 Westwood Ave. River Vale, NJ 07675