Beit Baruch Assisted Living Facility for the Elderly (Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE); Hebrew Senior Life)
Previously living in isolated, sub-standard housing in the city, the men and women survivors of the Holocaust and Communism now live and thrive at Beit Baruch Assisted Living Facility. This beautiful elderly residence currently houses 70 frail elderly with support from JCRC’s Committee for Post Soviet Jewry and local Boston and Dnepropetrovsk philanthropists. The partnerships between Boston’s Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, Hebrew Senior Life and Beit Baruch staff have increased the overall functionality and well-being of the residents through exercise, hip fracture surgery, skin ulcer alleviation, and other medical initiatives. A database system tracks residents’ progress for daily exercise as well as hip replacement rehabilitation. In addition, Beit Baruch staff has created an adult day exercise program for more frail residents which is held daily in the Winter Garden Room. Staff and volunteers work with the residents, providing medical care, offering lectures, reading books, doing craft projects, and exercising, as well as a falls-risk program. These fitness-wellness programs, established with support and technical assistance of JCHE's Francine Godfrey, have created a connection for residents, providing for their physical, emotional and social needs.
In fall 2004, Dr. Lewis Lipsitz and Louise Lipsitz traveled to Dnepropetrovsk for a three-month sabbatical. Dr. Lipsitz, who is Vice President for Academic Medicine at Hebrew Senior Life, and Chief of the Division of Gerontology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, worked at Beit Baruch to train physicians and staff there. He focused on geriatric issues in Dnepropetrovsk through his numerous lectures at Dnep’s medical academy and other institutions. Dr. Lipsitz also helped launch the first hip fracture surgery program called Shaker Bidrah that provides medical care for the 30-40 Jewish elderly who fracture or break their hips each year. Surgery has already been performed on thirteen people who would otherwise have died or would have spent the rest of their lives bedridden. Return to Dnepropetrovsk Projects Page
