“There are 10,000 people a day turning 65 and I think most of them live in Arizona,” says Janet Arnold, senior concierge for the Valley’s Jewish community. “All the Boomers are getting older and we’re not our parents or our grandparents’ seniors. We’re different. We’re still vibrant, we’re still full of life, we want to keep learning, we want to keep doing things, we want to keep active.”
In 2014, the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix initiated and funded a study as part of its three areas of community core impact (serving seniors, engaging young Jewish adults and advocating for Israel). This study identified three primary focus areas where services are needed for seniors: information, transportation and socialization.
In the summer of 2015, JFGP funded a pilot program to increase access to information and resources, and the position of senior concierge was created in partnership with Jewish Family & Children’s Service – a role that spoke to Janet right away.
“My family came to the Valley in 1957. I was involved in Jewish youth groups as a kid and teen. Went to Arizona State University for undergrad and University of Arizona for graduate school. Taught for a few years. I got re-involved in the Jewish community as a volunteer when I had my two boys and was not working outside the home. Then my re-entry job was as director of Early Childhood Education at the old Phoenix JCC. After that, I founded the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company and was its executive director from 1988-2012, when the company closed for lack of funding. I started writing for Arizona Jewish Life magazine soon after that. I happened to see that the concierge position was ‘only’ half time, and knew I’d be perfect. Through my longevity in the community and my work with seniors and organizations through the theater, as well as my work with the magazine, I just know lots of ‘stuff!’ And I’m never afraid to say, ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out!’”
She spends two days a week at a highly visible concierge desk in the middle of the Valley of Sun Jewish Community Center lobby, which makes it easy to ask the concierge, well, anything. “You can’t walk into the JCC without tripping over me,” Janet says. The rest of the time she visits organizations around the Valley, speaks to groups and fields phone calls and emails from her office at JFCS.
Janet mainly answers queries about transportation, home care, senior residences, legal services and socialization (where can I find a class, where can I meet people). “I have a database set up in each one of these areas. Of course, you could Google, but you get 5,000 responses. People don’t want 5,000 responses. They want a few. And our people want to have the Jewish connection as well. My list is much shorter than a Google list,” Janet says.
Many of the calls she gets are from out-of-state adult children, nieces and nephews, friends of friends, seeking help for their aging loved ones in the Valley. Janet says she can hear the relief in their voices as soon as she says that yes, she can help.
Although JFCS has offered an information and referrals service for 14 years, Janet said the federation study found that people tended not to call unless they were in crisis. She partners with Kathy Rood, who runs the service, sending her people who need help with more difficult issues, such as health, behavioral health and financial assistance.
For questions about Senior Concierge services in the Valley, you can reach Janet at 480-599-7198 or [email protected], or visit jfcsaz.org.
In the Tucson area, Irene Lloyd fulfills a similar role to Janet’s, as the program manager of Jewish Elder Access, a program of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, in partnership with the Tucson Jewish Community Center, Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and the rabbinic community, with funding from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
“Jewish Elder Access came out of the Senior Task Force, which involves representatives from the federation, multiple Jewish organizations, as well as lay folks who are interested in Jewish seniors’ needs. [JFSA] had done a population study in 2002 and the concept of Jewish Elder Access came out of that study. The program came to fruition in the summer of 2010,” Irene says.
At the time, she was working as a case manager at JFCS after spending 20 years as a nurse and nurse educator. She was hired to run JEA, as she puts it, with little more than a concept and a budget. Over the last six years, Irene has fleshed out the program to include 20 areas of referral, which include transportation, in- home care, contractors, medical, legal assistance, insurance, housing, activities in the Jewish community and more.
About two-thirds of her clients are low-income seniors living on $2,000 a month or less, with many of them surviving on less than $1,000. But there is no requirement of income, age or religion. “We turn no one away from information. Anyone who calls gets help,” she says.
Like Janet, Irene also gets calls from adult children in other states concerned about their aging parents in Tucson. “I’m working with one currently. Her parents live in Tucson. There is no local family. They are aging in their home, in their mid and late 80s. They both suffer from age-related health issues, but they would like to stay in their home. I try to evaluate the individuals. They might not be able to articulate their needs. They may know they need something, but not know exactly what kind of help they need in their home. In this particular situation, I’m working with the daughter to get care givers in the home, and we’re connecting them with Select Care Management, our care management program at JFCS,” Irene says.
Irene goes beyond providing information. “It’s much more about trying to get a visual about who this person is and trying to assist them in any way,” she says. “I’m not just giving out a list of names.” All of the resources are vetted, either by Irene or through the Pima Council on Aging.
She also tries to identify gaps in services. “There are lots of those. Transportation is a major issue in Tucson, particularly for seniors; affordable housing; affordable in-home care” she says. Although there are subsidized programs that provide these services, not everyone qualifies for them. And subsidized programs often have long waiting lists, which Irene says can make them irrelevant for people with more urgent needs.
A JFSA grant through the Senior Task Force provides transportation to Shabbat services and events at participating synagogues, which helps maintain ties to the community and combats isolation. “Isolation can lead to so many detrimental things. Isolation feeds depression and depression feeds isolation,” she says, sounding just like a case manager.
But the JFSA senior transportation grant doesn’t address other transportation needs, like medical appointments and errands. Irene provides referrals to other transportation programs, but they tend to be limited in scope by a lack of volunteers.
Irene says Jewish volunteers are needed to provide friendly visits, companionship and other services for seniors. “A lot of Jewish seniors grew up around Jewish people, so that’s their comfort level. A lot are so tentative to have a stranger coming into their home, but if there’s someone Jewish, there’s a familiarity.” To help Jewish clients feel more at ease, JFCS holds monthly classes about Judaism and Jewish practices for non-Jewish volunteers.
To reach seniors who live in retirement communities, Irene takes her show on the road with “Shmooz’n and Shpil’n.” Roughly translated from Yiddish as “Talkin’ and Playin’,” this outreach program enables Irene to engage Jewish residents with games and questions so that she can get to know them and determine if JEA can help in any way.
“It means a lot to people. It really does,” says Irene. “They feel some sense of community, which is hopefully one of the things that we are providing.”
For information about Jewish Elder Access in Tucson and southern Arizona, contact Irene at 520-795-0300, ext 2232 or [email protected], or visit jfcstucson.org/services/Jewish-elder-access.
