On Jan. 12, Dan Levitt, seniors advocate of British Columbia, spoke at the Jewish Seniors Alliance\u2019s winter symposium. <\/i>(photo from JSA)<\/i><\/p>\n
On Jan. 12, Jewish Seniors Alliance, with Kehila Society of Richmond and the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, presented the winter symposium titled The Future of Aging. The featured speaker was Dan Levitt, seniors advocate of British Columbia.<\/p>\n
Jeff Moss, executive director of JSA, opened the afternoon event and Toby Rubin, co-executive director of Kehila Society, offered some remarks, including that Kehila is always happy to be a co-presenter with JSA.<\/p>\n
Gyda Chud, representing the Peretz Centre, told a few stories about the Levitt and Gofsky families (Dan Levitt\u2019s parents) and their history with the Centre. Levitt\u2019s great-grandparents, Rose and Abe Smith, were among the founders of the Peretz. Chud spoke of her mother, Gallia, who is 100 years old \u2013 she lives by and instils the values of diversity, inclusion, social justice and advocacy. Chud also mentioned that she had been Dan Levitt\u2019s preschool teacher at the Peretz Centre, where the symposium was held.<\/p>\n
Tammi Belfer, chair of JSA, reminded everyone of the organization\u2019s commitment to all the seniors of British Columbia, and thanked everyone for working to enhance the quality of life for all seniors.<\/p>\n
Levitt, who is an honorary member of JSA, then educated the 125 attendees about the situation of seniors in this province. He began by giving an example from his time at a home in Mission. The story involves giving plants to seniors on one floor of the facility and telling them that they were responsible for the plants\u2019 upkeep. Plants were also given to residents on another floor, but they were told that the staff was responsible for their care. The residents who were given the responsibility had plants that flourished, whereas the plants on the other floor died. Given purpose and responsibility, said Levitt, people will rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n
Levitt continued with some statistics: there are presently 1.1 million seniors in British Columbia and, by 2036, there will be 1.6 million. More than 90% of seniors live independently, but the fastest growing segment of this cohort is over 85 years old, and one in three of them will need care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In his travels across the province, Levitt has heard from seniors about age discrimination in the workplace, often related to the regulations of employment, such as losing long-term disability and group insurance coverage after age 65. Many were concerned about the cost of driver\u2019s licence renewal medical forms, which can vary from about $80 to $250, depending on the doctor\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n Levitt\u2019s office is planning on holding a panel on transportation that will look at the needs of seniors. Some of the concerns are the distances between bus stops and the availability of HandyDART services.<\/p>\n There are many challenges ahead, said Levitt, noting that there are 6,500 people in British Columbia waiting for a publicly-subsidized long-term care bed. Home support, which would enable many seniors to \u201cage in place,\u201d is expensive here \u2013 these services are free to users in Ontario and Alberta. There is a need for more advocacy, he said. Support is also needed for caregivers, so they are not lost to other jobs. Combating ageism is also important.<\/p>\n Some other problems include the seismic upgrading needed in many care homes and digital access for seniors. The future must include help at home, with aid in reminders regarding medications, and help with technology. There needs to be age- and dementia-friendly places like they have in Bruges, Belgium.<\/p>\n Recommendations from Levitt and the Office of the Seniors Advocate include improving SAFER (a rental help program for seniors, the rates of which are inadequate); free home support; the funding of shingles, RSV and enhanced flu shots; and developing cross-ministry synergy for seniors\u2019 issues.<\/p>\n After a lively Q & A session led by Chud, Ken Levitt, Dan\u2019s father, who is a longtime board member of JSA, said a few words of appreciation. Larry Shapiro, JSA past chair, presented Dan Levitt with a gift and Moss thanked him. Refreshments followed, and the audience lingered and talked with Levitt before leaving with more knowledge and confidence than when they arrived.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shanie Levin<\/b> is a Jewish Seniors Alliance Life Governor. She is also on the editorial committee of <\/i>Senior Line magazine.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Jan. 12, Dan Levitt, seniors advocate of British Columbia, spoke at the Jewish Seniors Alliance\u2019s winter symposium. (photo from JSA) On Jan. 12, Jewish Seniors Alliance, with Kehila Society of Richmond and the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, presented the winter symposium titled The Future of Aging. The featured speaker was Dan Levitt, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2219,23822,22993,3225,614,7824,3714],"class_list":["post-45950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-aging","tag-bc-seniors-advocate","tag-dan-levitt","tag-health-care","tag-jsa","tag-policy","tag-seniors"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}