inspire
Leyland Community Opens its Doors to Older Adults in Dorchester A publication for Hebrew SeniorLife supporters
inspire
Inspire is published by Hebrew SeniorLife.
Katelyn Quynn
Chief Development and Board Relations Officer
KatelynQuynn@hsl.harvard.edu
617.363.8295
Dena Groutsis
Executive Assistant
DenaGroutsis@hsl.harvard.edu
617.363.8206
Laura Katz
Sr. Director, Institutional Giving + Digital Fundraising
LauraKatz@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5785
Amanda Leberman
Assistant Director, Annual Giving
AmandaLeberman@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5792
Teresa V. Lisek
Sr. Director of Philanthropy TeresaVLisek@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5788
Tina Manuel
Campaign Manager
TinaManuel@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5783
Deb Mayerson
Manager, Major Gifts
DeborahMayerson@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5777
Anne Powers
Sr. Director, Development Operations Powers@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5782
Carol Snow
Major and Planned Giving Officer
CarolSnow@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5780
Stacey Weinbaum
VP of Board Relations, Events, + Leadership Engagement Weinbaum@hsl.harvard.edu
617.971.5790
Editor: Jeanne Seltzer
Writers: Jennifer Davis
Jeanne Seltzer
Photography:
Kate Flock
Steve Nelson/Fayfoto Boston
Patrick O’Connor
Len Rubenstein
Greg Shupe
Design: kor group, Boston
©2024
“Meeting the growing needs of older adults is core to our mission.”
This issue of Inspire celebrates the opening of Leyland Community, our new affordable housing site in Dorchester’s Upham’s Corner.
Because of loyal, dedicated donors like you, our mission of providing safe, affordable housing for seniors continues at a time when there is such a dire need. That’s why we will continue to focus on expanding the number of low-income older adults we can reach with our housing model that encourages and supports healthy, active, independent living.
We recently expanded the Simon C. Fireman Community in Randolph by building 45 new apartments, which opened last fall. Construction on a new 54-unit building at Center Communities of Brookline is well underway at 108 Centre Street. New residents will be selected through a lottery process to move in early 2025.
Meeting the growing needs of older adults is core to our mission. With your support, we will continue to explore more affordable housing, aging research, and innovative programs that help seniors from all backgrounds live productive, full lives.
In this issue of Inspire, we also recognize generous donors who gave to Hebrew SeniorLife during Fiscal Year 2023. You are ensuring that more people will live in communities that encourage healthy aging, foster social connection, and support caregivers.
Thank you for your commitment to creating a society where we can all flourish, at any age.
Katelyn Quynn Chief Development and Board Relations Officer
P.S. Please save the date for EngAGE—October 1, at the ICA/Boston.
The Healthy Aging Initiative
Using research to inform senior health
As more individuals live longer, it does not always mean they are living with better health. Some maintain overall health well into their nineties, but many do not. Aging-related functional decline can have wide-ranging impacts, affecting physical and mental health and resulting in a loss of independence, a need for supportive care, and a rise in disability.
Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research is seeking to uncover the reasons for these disparities by spearheading the Healthy Aging Initiative, a research study that uses the expertise of every scientist and research center at the Marcus Institute.
The Healthy Aging Initiative is headed by Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, senior scientist at the Marcus Institute, medical director at the Deanna and Sidney Wolk Center for Memory Health, and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. The study provides annual healthy aging checkups for older adults to understand what contributes to aging challenges and to evaluate how lifestyle modifications can make a difference for individuals.
“It’s not aging that causes illnesses. It’s aging that gives illness a chance to present itself,” says sub-investigator Davide Cappon, MS, PhD, assistant scientist at the Marcus Institute, clinical neuropsychologist at the Wolk Center, and an instructor of neurology at Harvard
Medical School. “The yearly assessments allow us to follow the health and progress of an individual over time,” he adds. “Particular areas of interest include what influences a person’s memory capabilities, balance, mobility, hearing, and vision.”
Participants complete an annual oneon-one in-person assessment that examines modifiable factors of healthy aging, such as diet, exercise, and fall prevention. They receive an annual holistic report that covers each assessment area, including cognition, mobility, strength, mental health, and healthy behaviors.
The study’s goals include:
• Identifying the factors and predictors of lifelong health and well-being
• Identifying the early biomarkers for disease
• Determining factors that modify the progression of disease
• Discovering risks for specific illnesses
• Enabling the development of interventions
• Expanding to include a diverse population of older adults
Early participants have already gotten value out of the study. During the pilot, 37 residents from Jack Satter House and NewBridge on the Charles completed participant assessments and received reports. Afterwards, 79% of participants agreed that becoming involved in the study benefited them, and 86% said they would participate in the future. The initiative has also been rolled out to our other senior living communities.
We anticipate many benefits to this innovative research study – for both the scientists and for the older adults participating. In addition to gathering important research data, we hope that the Healthy Aging Initiative annual holistic report with actionable steps to improve one’s health will serve as a catalyst for healthy aging.
You can participate in the Healthy Aging Initiative if you are:
• 55+ years old and live in a Hebrew SeniorLife Community
• 55+ years old and can travel to the Marcus Institute in Roslindale for an in-person assessment
• 18+ years old and a family member of a Hebrew SeniorLife resident
• 18+ years old and a Hebrew SeniorLife staff member
If you are interested in becoming involved with the research study, email us at hai@hsl.harvard.edu.
“Leyland Community offers older adults the tools they need to care for their total well-being in a safe and supportive environment.”
Leyland Community Opens its Doors to Older Adults in Dorchester
With this new affordable community, Hebrew SeniorLife continues its legacy of caring for underserved older adults.
It’s been well over a century since a group of Jewish women from Boston’s West End began a fundraising campaign to provide a home for vulnerable older adults in their community. This effort led to the opening of a small home on Queen Street in Dorchester. Little did they know that their philanthropy would lay the groundwork for the Hebrew SeniorLife of today – recognized both nationally and internationally as a leader in health care, innovative housing models, and aging research.
Coming full circle
Although today our housing communities provide homes for older adults representing diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, we’ve never lost sight of our sense of special responsibility to those among us who are most vulnerable and dependent on our care. Coming full circle from that first home on Queen Street, the first resident moved in earlier this year to the affordable rental community located at 9 Leyland Street in Dorchester’s Upham’s Corner neighborhood. By reclaiming an underutilized site, Hebrew SeniorLife, in collaboration with Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation, has improved the surrounding neighborhood while helping address the growing need for affordable housing in this underserved community.
Leyland Community features 43 units and enriched services to promote healthy aging. The building has a community space that offers health care and social programming to residents, as well as a library and lounge to promote social interaction. Parking and connections to surrounding amenities such as playgrounds and gardens are provided.
As evidence of the demand for affordable housing, there were 949 applicants for the lottery to rent one of the 43 units. The first 11 residents to be welcomed to the community have an average annual income of $14,672. Two will be transitioning from homeless shelters or other temporary housing situations. Ten of the first residents identify as minorities, and two as persons with a disability.
Right care in the right place at the right time
Perhaps most importantly, the community offers extensive services to support healthy, active, engaged, and independent living. This includes R3, Hebrew SeniorLife’s research-tested model of care that embeds a wellness team, including a nurse and social worker, in the community. This model of care has been shown to improve health care outcomes for residents, including decreased hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and increased connection with needed supports.
Where a person lives is one of the biggest factors in determining their overall health. Service-rich affordable housing like Leyland Community offers older adults the tools they need to care for their total well-being in a safe and supportive environment.
When It Comes to Giving, Making an Impact Matters Most
“The more I learned about HSL, the more impressed I became.”
To be counted among the many recipients of Dr. Peter Goldberg and Nancy Goldberg’s generosity can certainly be characterized as a point of pride as well as gratitude. In the past seven years they’ve been providing major charitable gifts to organizations that address social and environmental causes, disaster relief, and medical research. And an important criterion that drives their giving is the work they support must be impactful. They recently established a generous charitable gift annuity for Hebrew SeniorLIfe. (CGAs provide a charitable deduction and fixed amount each year to the giver.)
Beyond financial support, Dr. Goldberg, a dentist, also gives something equally valuable – his time. He’s a hospice volunteer for Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hospice Care and a member of HSL’s Hospice Care Visiting Committee.
Dr. Goldberg's interest in end-of-life care began decades ago when he was at Mass Eye and Ear providing neck and facial reconstruction for cancer patients. As both a health care provider and son managing his mother’s care in her final years, Peter saw that people often relinquish their health care and other wellness decisions to medical professionals rather than cultivating their own agency around these matters. He’s become a strong advocate for empowering older adults to become active participants in both health care and lifestyle choices that will make a real difference in their lives and that of their families.
When a colleague introduced Peter to Rabbi Herman Blumberg, who was then rabbinic director of Hebrew SeniorLife's Hospice Care, he found an organization that aligned with his vision for aging well. He has been part of the hospice volunteer team for nine years and developed a course on end-of-life decision making, which he offers through community organizations that serve older adults.
HSL’s focus on quality of life
Peter’s volunteer service led his wife, Nancy, to investigate HSL and as she puts it was “blown away” by what she found out. She admits that she knew little about the breadth of Hebrew SeniorLife’s services, including the depth of dementia care offered, the elder abuse prevention program, and scope of HSL’s aging research.
“The more I learned about HSL, the more impressed I became, so I said to Peter, this is an organization that we should be supporting,” says Nancy.
“It’s nice to know there is an organization that’s really looking at quality of life and aging well as intrinsic to medical and hospice care.”
On a more personal note, Nancy shares, “Peter and I have been fortunate that we’re healthy and active. But when the time comes when our needs change it’s comforting to know there is place like Hebrew SeniorLife that is there not only for our parents, but also for us.”
Help older adults live with joy
Leave a charitable bequest to Hebrew SeniorLife in your will … and you create a personal legacy that will help older adults live with independence, dignity, and happiness, and ultimately will ensure a bright future for all of us as we age.
For more information on bequests or other giving opportunities, contact Carol Snow at 617.971.5780 or CarolSnow@hsl.harvard.edu.
hebrewseniorlife.org/bequests
Dr. Peter Goldberg and Nancy Goldberg
Orchard Cove Resident Brings New Meaning to the Word Gift
Janet Brady says she “does because she can.” This is a modest understatement when you consider all that Janet contributes to the Orchard Cove community she calls home as well as Hebrew SeniorLife as a whole. And she proudly shares that because her children are successful, she has been able to gift a portion of her Orchard Cove entrance fee to support Hebrew SeniorLife. As an active, creative, and devoted member of the Orchard Cove community, Janet herself is a gift to Hebrew SeniorLife.
Finding community and support at Orchard Cove
Janet and her husband Tom lived a good life, 30 years of it on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., where Tom was an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank and Janet was a high school biology teacher. When it was time to retire, they moved to Cape Cod to be closer to their children in Boston.
Soon after, Tom was diagnosed with dementia and began to wander. Janet knew she could no longer care for him in their single-family home. “I was an ankle sprain away from chaos,” says Janet.
They considered finding an apartment in Boston, but would Janet find the community life she wanted? And even though they were both relatively young, with Tom’s condition, safety was a top priority and with time, care needs would only increase.
They visited Orchard Cove and found it warm and welcoming. Janet appreciated the support she received from her neighbors and staff as she cared for Tom.
“I always say the community here has your back but no one is intrusive,” explains Janet. “No one is going to tell you what to do or how to do it, but they helped me make decisions that ensured Tom received the care that was best for him.”
One of those decisions included moving Tom to memory care assisted living at NewBridge on the Charles as his dementia progressed. Janet credits Director of Expressive Therapies and Brain Health Initiatives Leticia Prieto Alvarez and the music therapy program she runs for making a huge difference in Tom’s quality of life. “Leticia is amazing and joyful,” says Janet. “She made me feel that Tom was in the best place he could be.”
Ultimately Tom returned to nursing care at Orchard Cove where he passed away two years ago.
Living a vibrant and engaged life
As president of Orchard Cove‘s Resident Association and a member of the program committee, Janet has become an important part of the fabric of community life.“We’ve been developing a system that provides new residents with a navigator to help them define how they want to age and identify what matters most to them in their lives within the community,” says Janet. “We’re focused on vitality because as people age, we want them to remain active and engaged so Orchard Cove will attract newcomers looking for an exciting community.”
Why giving is important
According to Janet, “Music means so much to my family. So, when I decided to do something in Tom’s memory, I began donating money to a fund that allows us to hire top-notch musicians to perform for the Orchard Cove community, which we would not be able to afford without added support.” The gift of her entrance fee will help, in part, to continue this program, and the rest is unrestricted. NewBridge on the Charles and Orchard Cove residents can choose to donate a portion of their entrance fee, which is otherwise returned to the resident or their estate when they leave the community.
Janet Brady
“I hope that by donating my entrance fee others will be encouraged to do the same. I love what HSL does, which is very important for people like me, as well as for others who may not be able to afford to live at Orchard Cove or NewBridge. HSL is supporting low-income housing for seniors, which is extraordinary,” says Janet.
Beyond its senior housing communities, Janet appreciates the breadth of everything Hebrew SeniorLife has to offer — from health care to research. “A lot of people live in the bubble of their individual community and think that HSL is totally here for our benefit, but it’s so much more than that,” says Janet. “I’ve pledged my entrance fee because my children are doing well, which allows me to be able to do for others.”
For more information about entrance fees or other estate gifts, please contact Carol Snow at 617-971-5780 or CarolSnow@hsl.harvard.edu.
A Gift that Opens Up the World for Memory Care
Patients
Hebrew Rehabilitation Center now offers sensory room therapy to patients in the memory care units on both the Boston and Dedham campuses. These rooms are designed to help people living with neurocognitive conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease remain active and engaged with their world. The sensory room on the Boston campus was made possible with a gift from the Sephardic Foundation on Aging. The Gerald Corrigan Multi-Sensory Suite on the NewBridge campus was funded with a gift from the Challenger Foundation.
The experience of a shrinking world
Many people living with cognitive decline experience what can be described as a “shrinking of their world.” As individuals understand and adapt to a dementia diagnosis, it’s not uncommon to feel a profound sense of loss. Relationships with friends and family change and safety concerns limit independence. And as disease progresses, response to this changing world often results in repetitive behaviors, confusion, anxiety, and mood swings, significantly impacting their quality of life.
Sensory rooms expand the world through specialized design and equipment, engaging a patient's senses and experientially allowing them to transcend their limitations. An aroma set with diffuser and oils may provoke memory through olfactory stimulation, a tactile pad engages a patient through touch, or immersion in a visual experience might calm a person with hearing loss.
“These spaces hold great therapeutic possibilities for our memory care patients who may not be able to participate in a book discussion or an art therapy class, but can still engage with their environment and others using adaptive sensory equipment,” says Sarah Sjöström, MSN, RN, ACNP-BC, associate chief nursing officer at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-NewBridge. “The rooms create a passport to the outside world and stimulate nostalgia or connection to meaningful past experiences.”
Moving sensory room therapy forward
The Hebrew Rehabilitation Center team is working to establish a roadmap that will evaluate and continuously enhance the efficacy of sensory rooms in memory care treatment, which they hope to share with others in the future.
Sensory rooms expand patients' worlds using things they can touch, smell, and see.
According to Sarah, “While there’s a lot of good research on the benefits of sensory room therapy, we don’t have a tool that adequately allows us to track how our particular patients respond.”
The HRC team is creating an assessment tool that will record a patient’s treatment, including duration of time they spend in the room, activities they engaged in, and their response to treatment. Sarah explains, “The tool will provide us a with a roadmap that allows us to say here’s what we’re seeing in terms of the impact on behavior, mood, and interaction with staff, which will enhance our ability to provide quality and continuity of care for our memory care patients.”
Gifts make it possible now and in the future
Known for providing top quality care, Hebrew SeniorLife depends on the generous support of its donor community and the sensory rooms are a perfect example. Donor gifts paid for construction, equipment, and staff education.
According to Sarah, “We reserved funds from the gifts for maintenance of the space anticipating that there may be things we’ll want to add to ensure the rooms remain a sustainable place as technology and equipment changes.”
To learn how you can support Hebrew SeniorLife’s innovative programs through your giving, contact Teresa Lisek at TeresaVLisek@hsl.harvard.edu or 617-971-5788.