Health-care Symposium in Montreal: Caring for the Orthodox Senior/Holocaust Survivor

Montreal hosts its first symposium dedicated to educating health-care professionals about the needs and religious sensitivities of the largely growing Orthodox Jewish community in the city. Ahavas Chesed, an organization acting as liaison between government institutes and the Jewish community, held the symposium in the especial hopes of providing comfortable and effective care for Orthodox seniors.

Entitled “Building Bridges: Caring for the Orthodox Senior/Holocaust Survivor”, the symposium was more than a year of meticulous planning to teach the understanding of a culture unfamiliar to many medical professionals handling the care of seniors. The importance of wellness in these patients is understood by both the medical community and the Orthodox community, and in the interest of ensuring proper care, Debbie Fox served as key note speaker for the conference. A licensed clinical social worker and director of Aleinu Family Resource Center, Fox outlined a number of tips in treating elderly Holocaust survivors, who for instance may be fearful of strangers at the door, wary of implementing medical instruction without the consultation of their rabbi, and unable to take appointments on Fridays.

In enthusiastic response from the medical professionals who had previously been under-prepared to be aware of cultural sensitivity but eager for the chance to learn, Ahavas Chesed is planning a series of “road-shows” to reach health-care providers of other areas.