One Step at a Time
Married for nearly 60 years, Mrs. Schultz is charming, fashionable and 83-years old. She’s also a Holocaust survivor and her husband requires 24-hour care.
Having lived through the horrors at Auschwitz and Stutthof Mrs. Schultz has multiple health issues, including inflammation of the spine, cardiovascular problems and complications from childhood rheumatic fever contracted at a concentration camp. She is increasingly slipping and falling, unable to remain steady on her feet. She also suffers from depression.
A self described “fighter,” none of Mrs. Schultz’s medical concerns will stop her from strengthening her gait and ability to move around her home. “I want to walk and use my walker without assistance or fear of falling. It is my wish,” she says.
When Edgar Biazon, Mrs. Schultz’s MJHS Home Care physical therapist, has her do leg lifts 5 times, she wants to do it 10 times. The same applies for arm strengthening exercises.
Edgar also checks Mrs. Schultz’s blood pressure, her heart beat and breathing. If he determines longer-term physical therapy is needed, Jeanne Dowd, Mrs. Schultz’s HomeFirst nurse health partner, will coordinate the home care, with the goal of keeping Mrs. Schultz independent and living at home.
With the assistance of HomeFirst’s social work and member service teams, Jeanne recently helped Mrs. Schultz access financial and social services, including securing food stamps, phone and utility subsidies, housing aid, medication management and assistance with Medicaid recertification-and proactively identified short- and long-term needs. Mrs. Schultz’s HomeFirst member services staff also arranges for covered services including transportation to medical appointments and home delivery of medical supplies.
On an ongoing basis, Jeanne works collaboratively with Mrs. Schultz’s physicians to ensure care is coordinated, cohesive and consistent.
Often feeling isolated from friends and family, Mrs. Schultz enjoys her time with Edgar-who motivates her to keep trying and focusing on reclaiming her physical independence. She also treasures her time with Jeanne who Mrs. Schultz describes as a “diamond”, “all heart” and “clean”. Cleanliness is particularly important to Mrs. Schultz because she remembers the horrific, demeaning conditions at the concentration camps.
In response to Mrs. Schultz’s feeling of loneliness, Jeanne is evaluating Mrs. Schultz for additional HomeFirst benefits, such as adult day health care, a support group for Holocaust survivors, as well as increased home visits by Orthodox Jewish community volunteers.
Mrs. Schultz could easily slip through the cracks. She doesn’t like to complain and it takes a while to get her to talk about her pain-whether emotional or physical. But MJHS’ HomeFirst team is focused on ensuring Mrs. Schultz receives the benefits and resources she’s entitled to…in order to help improve her daily life-and give her the care, attention and love she needs, wants and deserves.
That’s the MJHS way. We coordinate care…share information with each other…figure out a way to help a patient maximize her benefits. We focus on a person’s complete set of needs, not just on her medical symptoms.
By donating to MJHS Foundation, you help ensure that the Mrs. Schultzes of New York City-regardless of background, ethnicity, religion or age receive dignity, independence, hope.
