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June 28, 2002
Anxiety felt at Louis Brier
Residents are concerned about the home's Jewishness.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER AND CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Some residents of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital are concerned
about what they perceive to be a decline in the Yiddishkeit (Judaism)
in the home. They seized the opportunity at the Louis Brier's annual
general meeting June 19 to ask why, and the leadership of the home
responded.
After waiting patiently for the new business portion of the meeting's
agenda, several of the residents in attendance took turns at the
microphone. They demanded to know from Dr. Nick Braithwaite, the
home's chief executive officer, and Lee Simpson, president of the
board of trustees, how the home was going to retain its unique Jewish
character in the face of budget and staff cuts.
"I am very much worried about this home, as far as Yiddishkeit
is concerned, because the people who used to help us keep up Yiddishkeit
are not any more with us and we didn't hire any more Jewish help.
I was wondering why," asked one resident.
"Ours is the only Jewish home west of Winnipeg," said
another resident. "If this new process is continued, it will
soon become like all the other retirement homes in town.... We do
not want this to happen. We want to keep our home Jewish."
Sylvia Hill, president of the residents council, spoke next.
"This is not a home anymore," said Hill. "It is more
like an insitution and a factory and we [the residents] are like
nuts and bolts in this factory.
"For 10 years, I have been a member of this home. I know we
have to lose some people, I know we have to cut back, but we are
choosing wrong people for our home," she continued, garnering
applause from many of the almost 100 people in attendance.
"We don't want the highest qualifications; they don't mean
a thing. It's the application of soul, love and belonging –
that's what makes a family.... There are many homes in Vancouver,
but this is the only Jewish home."
Hill also claimed that non-Jewish workers are being hired despite
the availability of Jewish applicants.
"Jewish people apply [for jobs at the Louis Brier]," she
said. "But they are not taken in preference of somebody with
no better qualifications and [who gets paid] a higher salary while
we're cutting back on our budget. I am very hurt. I am very bitter.
And I want to know what is our board of directors doing.
"Do you ever come down to us and find out how we are? Don't
live in your ivory towers. We are people. We have souls, we have
love, we have needs and we like to see you every now and then, just
as friends and one big family.... I don't want to see my home destroyed.
Please hear our plea and please work for the good of this home."
A volunteer spoke after Hill. She said that Hill's comments reflected
the views of everyone who has a close connection to the Louis Brier.
The volunteer said she has noticed changes in the home.
"People sit in their rooms instead of coming out and singing
and talking and playing. They no longer feel comfortable with our
present staff," she said. "We do need people in here,
on staff, who relate to the residents, who speak Yiddish, who know
something about the holidays and I really urge you to do some consideration
in the way the staff is now hired and organized."
Braithwaite empathized with the residents.
"We have lost a lot of good staff. We have had to make some
cuts that have not been easy," he said. "I can assure
you, and I have in the past, and I will always continue to assure
you, that the Jewishness of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital is
never a question. It will remain paramount. But just as much, so
will be the quality of care that we provide and that includes the
love, the affection, the caring that we've heard spoken about. You
have my commitment on that."
Simpson agreed with the residents' concerns.
"For the first time in a long time, I'm really at a loss of
knowing what to say because you are all 100 per cent correct,"
she said. "In an ideal world, I wish that the staff at the
Louis Brier and your board of trustees could make all your wishes
come true. But, we don't live in an ideal world and our health-care
system is far from ideal. But that does not mean that we have not
heard each one of your concerns.... Much has to rely on volunteers
who give freely of their time and services and perhaps that's one
area we have not developed as we should, and perhaps that's one
area that could increase the Yiddishkeit of this home. We have heard
you."
In an interview after the meeting adjourned, Max Meyer, a resident
at Louis Brier for seven years, said he too was concerned with the
change in character of the home.
"We understand that there isn't enough money. We understand
that any cuts that have to be made are the result of that. But,
I'm afraid that the cuts in the Jewish staff, some of them, are
under the pretext that it is required because of the shortage of
funds and that is a great danger in my eyes.... The way the meeting
went, I have a degree of hope that something will come of it, but
I don't know."
In an interview with the Bulletin the day after the AGM,
Braithwaite said the residents' complaints were a result of goverment
health-care cuts that have forced the home to cut 17 full-time equivalents
in staff, or approximately $1 million in salary.
"That puts a huge strain on everybody," he said, noting
that they have managed to keep all of their beds open despite the
cuts. "And as much as you try to tailor those cuts to minimize
any effect on the residents, you can't cut that sort of stuff out
of a budget of a long-term care facility without running into some
impact."
However, Braithwaite said that of all the staff who were cut, only
one part-time employee was Jewish. Either way, Braithwaite explained,
the leadership of the home had very little say in deciding who was
let go.
"The cuts that we made in staff were all made to satisfy the
collective agreements of the three unions that we are party to so
we had no choice as to who went and who stayed," he said.
Braithwaite also pointed to the changing needs of residents in long-term
care.
"What we're being asked to do, quite frankly, is to look after
more complex health-care needs for people who are sicker, with less,"
he said. "If you looked at what Louis Brier was 10 years ago,
as far as it being a home and the residents we had, these were very
highly functioning people and it was much closer to an old age home.
Now there are fewer and fewer [relatively healthy] people.... It's
becoming much more of a hospital and will continue to do so over
the next few years.
"So what becomes increasingly important is our ability to meet
people's physical and cognitive needs, and that doesn't mean you
eliminate or downgrade the cultural and religious things, but we
have to always balance it."
Braithwaite said the leaders of the home are fully aware of the
concerns related to Jewish culture. With the most recent changes,
Braithwaite said the home put a recreational therapist – Patricia
Nitkin – in the position of cultural leader and volunteer co-ordinator.
Her mandate, explained Braithwaite, is to program cultural events
to ensure that the Louis Brier has religious and other events for
the residents and to educate staff. As a result, Braithwaite feels
that there hasn't been any reduction in Jewish or cultural programming
at all and Nitkin agrees.
"In all reality, there has been no decrease at all in cultural
events here," she told the Bulletin. "Every holiday
is celebrated to the fullest and Friday is all about Shabbat here.
Eighty or 90 per cent of our programs have Jewish content in them."
Nitkin said that the many changes in government policies and funding
and, as a result, at the Louis Brier, are causing the residents
a lot of stress.
"Nobody likes change and in any home you want things to be
stable. That's what home is," she said. "Home is stability.
Home is where you come back and it's the same way that it was yesterday
and it doesn't feel like that right now because there is change
all around and it's very distracting for a lot of people."
Among recent changes is that Mary Laing, executive leader of care
services, resigned a few days before the Brier's AGM.
"She felt that it was time to move on," said Braithwaite.
Asked whether Laing was leaving as a result of the residents' complaints,
Braithwaite told the Bulletin, "I can categorically
say that I am not aware of any factual information that way. Mary
has been nothing but professional in the way she has conducted herself
in her position."
There are rumors about other potential resignations or staff changes
at the Louis Brier. However, as of press time, they remained unsubstantiated.
As to the Jewish future of the Louis Brier, Braithwaite is taking
what he heard from the residents seriously.
"Please understand that I respect what they were saying and
we hear what they're saying and we will do our best to answer what
they're saying."
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