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May 19, 2006
Facing an uncertain future
Parents of mentally ill struggle to find their kids housing.
VERONIKA STEWART
For the aging parents of the community's mentally ill, there is
a growing concern: who will take care of their children when they
are gone?
Some will find solace in Yaffa House, the only kosher residence
for the mentally ill west of Winnipeg. But for Aaron and Tzvia Estrin,
finding a kosher accommodation for their son is not so simple. One
of the requirements to live at Yaffa House is that residents be
deemed able to self-administer their own medications, a requirement
the Estrins' son has not met.
Aaron Estrin, former president of the Yaffa Housing Society, said
a lack of funding from the provincial government has left Yaffa
with few resources to cater to the high demand for space and care.
"We only have professional staffing for residents 16 hours
a week. If we had 24-hour support, we could take the many people
applying who we've had to turn down," Estrin said. "For
every person we get to fill a vacancy, there's a dozen we have to
turn down. Because of the high bar we have set for residents, we
have difficulty finding a candidate who meets our requirements."
This restriction is also one that affects Estrin on a more personal
level.
"We are caught by that same restriction," he said. "Our
concern is that his parents are getting quite elderly. We're not
sure who'll keep an eye on him when we're gone."
At Yaffa, the residents celebrate Passover with a seder, a connection
with the community that Estrin said his son does not receive at
the home in which he currently lives.
"He's one of the family who tends to go to synagogue very regularly,"
Estrin said. "I suspect as time goes by he'll drift away from
it because it's not convenient for him."
Their son, who is 42, is moving from the home he's in now partially
because he has trouble keeping kosher there. Estrin said his son
took up vegetarianism in order to avoid eating non-kosher meats.
The facility into which he is moving will offer more independence,
according to Estrin, but, as parents, he said, they are concerned
he will be moving too far away.
"We're unhappy and concerned that he'll be moving to a more
remote area from us. It's going to be harder to keep contact daily."
Although Yaffa House has not been of help to their son, Estrin said
he is happy that the home has been of help to others.
"We haven't answered our own problem, but on a general basis
we are happy to have solved the problem for other families,"
Estrin said.
A combination of delegates from the Coast Foundation and the Yaffa
Housing Society assess each candidate for residency. Candidates
must be compliant with medications, independent, compatible with
the other residents and willing to keep kosher. The selection of
candidates is a very difficult process and requires a great deal
of planning because of the limited staffing. Potential residents
get an opportunity to look at the house and meet the occupants before
deciding if the accommodation suits their needs.
The Vancouver Yaffa Housing Society was organized in 1993 for the
specific purpose of creating housing facilities with a Jewish cultural
and ethnic atmosphere, offering those with mental disabilities a
chance to participate in the Jewish community. But when Yaffa House
opened in June 2001, they only had enough funding to open a supported
independent living home. Because of this, it has become an admission
requirement that residents are able to live with limited supervision
and aid.
The house is located in south Vancouver and can accommodate five
people. It has five bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and a fully
equipped kosher kitchen. Each individual has his/her own support
worker.
Because of the financial burden of caring for a person with mental
illness, the Yaffa Housing Society does not require financial means
testing. The cost of living in Yaffa House is approximately 70 per
cent of the individual's monthly income, which typically comes from
government subsidies. This amount includes the cost of food, cable,
laundry and accommodation.
According to Yaffa House material, if Vancouver's Jewish community
is approximately 25,000, it is not unreasonable to estimate that
5,000 people in the community currently suffer from some form of
mental illness. Canadian Mental Health Association data indicate
that one in five Canadians will be struck by mental illness at some
point in their life.
Veronika Stewart is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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