Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1994-12-08

              I I    I
»   ''-1
V*
* -
'■J
<■    *       ( , <, - . s ~ -i, \ \ i     *
l*.**.*'*     •> >, * > * I  ' ••  >  v  • i  > *, * t *  V >  I *• ' V, i,    s * * >„i  > I » i t     ^ u   I I 1  >      \     i
> >  >     f      ' > i t III. \ i , i
•I'l 'III'/ If
'    , < .       . /     - < , ^S
-• . -.    ..      ' *_' i,    ,    » k I Ut     •  I I, I k I  I • >• i  >
T¥ ir*
1 1 JL*
The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio
•  Jewish Community since 1922
VOLTJME72
NUMBER 50
DECEMBER 8,19.94
5 TEVET 5755
WE
'Lost in Yonkers'finds home
pageS
JactKemp named speaker
atJNF Pizzuti event
'm:>"'*\.-(' •', y , page4
x't'+'tim^'t'v'ti3"-/<,7 ••i^~i
'>>''i>''<*'d'.<}''&zi:{ *.''*••?>..
Jewish Historical Society
forms Task Force
■'• '", v   •"'.  '.'. .'.   pa?e^;
;;;;:■;• rftjr ■■■■■■;'■';■'■■■ 'T'-r f11:11;;""".1",'*.
v      ' -'   '    <■ t '>       $      * i   ' <-'" *T''''"t
Committee announces
le7'-;:':;-:.,:
pag& 9
, *' * " »■'" no"!"":!1"1' {■ * >"'*''■ '■"' '*"""» """ I'""* ''
f :|;-7 ABOUT THE COVER    7
ymM&iuwfr with Wexner iferftage Village ,
Executive Vice JfyesWent Gerald IN*, Cobrt are,
;l?«si^e«^s .Bis\p» Dochtager (lefty and FaulWe '
■ .Eiseiniairt, 7'    ,      '.,.*> 7'-
, •„*, .-.*/." . '  -   <»*
In The Clboiiifele-
Co/iw reflects on 30 years of changes at WHV
:, AtlThe' JOCa.
*S
•*«ti»#«*««4***#4»it**j>«***#(>«rir***)#rA,
. -"*f  .<
3
Federation........
7   ***$! *1W* '^^*W*.#*..»*t».'j#tf....fM*..**f*{i^#1i**.»'...J*9*t*,***lf .Iv . ,
'"^ ^f'4#ivirt»«lA' *''   '7-vv l'*J -'*'';  !, t i  m *"' *7-7'   ,- *'   ^    |A"J
S~'J&y.?W!HJ^$*Sl©S..»^^ ,'
w«*«.:.?'i...-' <,-...   ■*. v ...s, *„-r;    \ \ ■■■' "   •*.■«.
By Ina Horwitz-Whitmore
When the small house on
North Woodland Avenue
opened its doors to three elderly residents in 1951 -—as the
Columbus Jewish Home for
the Aged — no one could have
foreseen the many dramatic
changes that have produced
what is today Wexner Heritage Village, a geriatric center
of national distinction.    '
The Village's family of services now includes a 200-bed
skilled nursing residence, two
senior citizen apartment facilities offering a total of 140
suites, three day health care
centers, two residences for the
developmental^ disabled and
the soon-to-be-developed assisted living apanments, which
will be known as "Heritage
Terrace."
Yet, with all this expansion
over the past 33 years, what
has. remained constant is
Wexner Heritage Village's original focus on "Life with Dignity."  ■•..-.■■■
You feel it as you watch pastoral leader Rabbi Cary Kozberg teach Shalom House residents about the. Jewish holidays/You experience it as you
see Heritage House Director
of Activities/Volunteers Cynthia Huhn and her staff put
together an array of programs
and activities for residents.
So although size, services
and government regulations
may be a great deal different
from those bygone, days on
Woodland Avenue, WHV administration, staff,, officers,
Board of Trustees, Auxiliary
and volunteers try to make the
Village a "home" for each resident.
It is certainly far from easy
to meet the changing needs
that have arisen from an ever
growing elderly population, as
Wexner Heritage Village's Executive Vice President Gerald
N. Cohn well understands.
While Wexner Heritage
House has seen three expansions, one of the major advantages in having a much larger
facility is that it enables the
residence to meet the different
needs ofthe elderly in separate
areas of the home, and not
have residents, regardless of
needs and behavior, residing
together, Cohn noted.
Those .early residents of
Heritage House would today
be the residents of the Tower
and Bexley Heritage Apart-
' ments. With the 1970s bringing skilled nursing homes to
the forefront, a long range
planning community recommendation developed to build
apartments for the elderly to
meet the needs of current Heritage House residents, said
Cohn. Also, it became important that the community look
'The more things change, the more they
remain the same.'
There are challenges that lie
ahead but they can be met,
Cohn believes, reflecting on
his 30-year affiliation with the
village. 7
When he came to Heritage
House in the late 1960s, the
facility had recently been established at 1151 College Ave.
Thirteen residents from the
Woodland Avenue home had
moved to the new location.
Heritage House then had 50
rooms, mostly doubles with a
few singles (now every room is
private with a private bathroom).
At that time, a resident's average age was in the "early
70s," and about 90 percent
were mobile and needed "protective care" and "a place to
be with others" as opposed to
today's nursing care and sophisticated medical treatment
that follow discharge from a
hospital, Cohn said.
"The goal then (as it remains today) was how to take
a warm home-like flavor that
was part ofthe Woodland Avenue residence and bring it to
a much larger facility meeting
government regulations," noted Cohn.
into providing services to senior citizens at home so they
would not have to come to
Heritage House prematurely.
These recommendations
gave birth to two programs,
Cohn noted. Heritage Tower
with its 100 apartments, which
recently celebrated its 16th anniversary, was constructed,
and just this year Bexley Heritage Apartments opened with
40 additional units. Along
witli these services was the formation of GSO (Geriatric Service Organization), which received the first funding in the
nation for a city to provide at-
home services to the elderly,
Cohn said.
GSO has grown from serving about 60 individuals in the
1970s to helping approximately 1,600 today. This expansion
is due to the tremendous need
in the community-for its services and the strong desire of
the elderly to remain at home
rather than move to a residential facility, Cohn believes.
Another major change in
providing elderly care occurred in the 1980s with the
beginnings of the Heritage
Day Health Center. This ser
vice arose from the heed for
older members ofthe population to receive assistance during the day but then return to
their owii homes or those of
family members in the evening.
At the present time, 35 seniors are being served, in the
day care center on the Village
campus. Also, under the auspices of Wexner Heritage Village, two additional day health
centers are operating at full
capacity, one in the downtown
area and the other in Westerville.
Cohn discussed options for
older people needing care today. He noted that back in the
late '60s, Heritage House
could provide meals and custodial care along with older
adult recreational programs at
the Jewish Community Center
as well as counseling through
Jewish Family Services.
"Today, there are so many
more options for older people
who need one or more services
in order to maintain their independence," he said.
Cohn spoke about the advent of "Alzheimer's Disease," previously referred to
as senility, which has seen tremendous growth over the past
three decades. It has become
necessary to create special
programming for this group as
well as care-giving sessions for
their family members, Cohn
noted.
He said, "In Alzheimer's
latter stages, there often seems
to be little choice but for that
individual to enter a specialized unit in a nursing home,
such as our Yassenoff Neighborhoods at Wexner Heritage
House."
The Yassenoff Wing is divided into separate groupings
of living rooms, dining rooms,
see COHN pg. 3
■'■IS