The volunteer-based Yad Sarah saves Israel an annual $220 million by providing free or low-cost home care for the elderly. Its extensive operations, which include loans of medical equipment and outreach programs for the homebound, are studied as a model by similar organizations worldwide.
by Lili Eylon
The statistics alone are impressive: one out of three Israeli families has been helped by the voluntary organization Yad Sarah. Founded in 1976, Yad Sarah lends medical equipment to those who need it and aims to keep the sick and elderly in their homes and out of institutions. The huge organization, whose budget is $7 million a year, annually saves the State of Israel some $220 million, and its extensive volunteer-based activities have become a model for similar organizations worldwide.
Thanks to Yad Sarah, Local residents or tourists can borrow items ranging from simple wooden crutches and babies cribs to electrically-operated wheelchairs and oxygen-concentrating machines. Altogether, some 250,000 items of 275 different types of equipment are available through the 80 Yad Sarah chapters around the country. Even Israels President, Ezer Weizman, was recently a beneficiary: after a recent leg injury, he hobbled around for a while on a pair of Yad Sarah crutches.
In addition, Yad Sarah provides the infirm elderly with home care for free or for a nominal fee; rehabilitative, medical and para-medical equipment; and a variety of services. By helping to care for these persons in their homes, Yad Sarah, which is a private, non-governmental charity, saves Israel over $200 million annually, since home care is significantly less expensive than institutionalization. And for the patient, being at home benefits both physical and emotional well-being.
Yad Sarah relies on some 6,000 volunteers for much of its daily tasks. They come from every segment of Israeli society professionals, blue-collar workers, housewives, students and retirees. With only 48 full-time staff members and several dozen part-time employees, this charitable, non-profit organization can keep the running expenses of its huge operation at a minimum: administrative costs never exceed 8.5% of its $7 million annual budget.
Yad Sarah departments include a kitchen, dining room, day care center, national computerized communication center, oxygen service, "golden age" coffee shop, laundry service, meals-on-wheels, toy library and enrichment center for special children, a geriatric dental clinic, skill training, guidance and exhibition centers, and, of course, warehouses of equipment for loan.
Yad Sarahs outreach program for the homebound is an important part of the organizations services. A group of evaluators retired teachers, social workers, nurses and occupational therapists visit the homebound to see how they are coping and what they need and want. Another group of volunteers listens to and records oral histories. The homebound are also taught various crafts: weaving, embroidery, woodworking, silkscreening and making copper items. Once a year, the finished products are exhibited and sold in the Yad Sarah shop.
Another Yad Sarah program is a 24-hour emergency alert system for elderly, disabled and housebound people all over the country. A plastic transmitter bracelet worn by the person transmits a "Help" message to Yad Sarahs national computerized communication center when a button is pressed. The computer screen instantly shows the name, address, medical condition, doctor and family members of the patient. With the two-way microphone and loudspeaker system in the patients home, the alarm center can talk to the patient in any room in the house. The system, provided for a minimal one-time payment, is being used today by 6,000 persons.
A successful project initiated in the wake of the recent mass immigration from the former Soviet Union is the Skill Training and Employment Center for Older New Immigrants. Here these older immigrants receive lessons in Hebrew and Israeli culture and get three months of paid training, after which they earn a certificate recognized by the Ministry of Labor and are employed full time by Yad Sarah. They assemble spare parts into such orthopedic equipment as wheelchairs, childrens rehabilitative items, walkers and emergency alert systems. Producing and assembling equipment for free loan from parts instead of importing the items whole saves Yad Sarah some $1,000,000 annually, while also providing work for men and women who might otherwise not find jobs.
"We have high-quality equipment," says Pat Allin, Public Relations Director for Yad Sarah, "but because it is in such frequent use, we need to service it constantly." Five workshops, in various parts of Jerusalem, are involved in the upkeep of Yad Sarah equipment. Recently, a group of prisoners sentenced to community service for minor offenses has been involved in the repair of broken medical equipment to be returned to the loan "library".
At Yad Sarahs Exhibition Guidance and Resource Center, people who need to buy medical equipment for permanent use in the home can find out just what is available on the market. Displayed at the Center are home aids ranging from mattresses to prevent bedsores, air purifiers, collapsible strollers for handicapped children, equipment to check blood pressure in short, all sorts of durable paramedical equipment.
Devices to make the disabled users life easier and safer are also displayed. In the kitchen, for instance, there are faucets on the side of the sink - closer to the user; a non-slip mat which sticks to the table; a pot-tipper; knives and forks encased in foam rubber for easier handling; and special plate guards so food cannot fall off the plate. In the bedroom, a ladder on a heavy rope attached to the bed frame helps a person get out of bed; in the bathroom, a special folding device enables a person to sit in the shower. Last year, a full complement of these items was on display for two weeks in Zurich, Switzerland, at the initiative of the Swiss Friends of Yad Sarah, and at an International Conference on Home Care the first conference of its kind organized by Yad Sarah in Jerusalem.
Yad Sarahs current plans for expansion include the completion of Yad Sarah House, scheduled for spring 1998. The new building - which will contain all Yad Sarah departments - will offer four to five times as much space for services as the present-day rehabilitation center does.
Groups from many countries come to learn from Yad Sarah. During several-month-long workshops, they learn about Yad Sarahs work so they can apply what they learn in their own homelands. Some 60 organizations based on Yad Sarah know-how and funded by the Joint Distribution Committee have already been established in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgistan, Georgia, Armenia, the Ukraine and other places. At the time of writing, negotiations between Yad Sarah and two organizations in South Africa are under way for a similar institution in Kwazululand.