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September 5, 2003
Kafka on Snider Campus
New CEO wants to focus on medical care and caring.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
According to Peter Kafka, running a multi-level care facility for
Jewish seniors takes a strong ability to balance health care with
caring. That's why he is looking forward to his new role as the
chief executive officer of the Dr. Irving and Phyliss Snider Campus
for Jewish Seniors.
Stepping in place for Dr. Nick Braithwaite, Kafka will begin his
work for the Louis Brier Home and Hospital and the Harry and Jeanette
Weinberg Residence on Sept. 15.
With a background in human resources management, psychology and
long-term care, Kafka believes his leadership can bring a fresh
approach to an already successful organization.
"Care facilities so often focus on the medical model for seniors
and I think there is a lot more that can be done from the social
model perspective," he told the Bulletin. "I'd
like to work on creating an environment where the residents have
as much freedom, independence, flexibility and decision making as
we possibly can.
"I give a lot of credit to people like Nick Braithwaite and
Ken Levitt and I know that the board has worked hard," he continued.
"But there is a lot more that I think can happen."
Kafka spent the past year and a half running his own human resource
and management consulting firm, mainly working with owners and managers
of long-term care facilities in both the public and private sectors.
He spent 14 years prior to that with the Fraser Burrard Hospital
Society and the Simon Fraser Health Region as their vice-president
of human resources.
He said he values the importance of creating a positive working
environment and plans on using his listening skills to continue
improving many aspects of the campus.
"I want it to be a great place to work and where seniors have
as much say as they possibly can," he said. "I will want
the input of the residents and their families. I will want the input
of the staff and we will do what we can to create the most positive
environment as we can. It's important to understand that medical
care and caring are two different concepts."
Kafka has always had a strong interest in Jewish communal service
as he has served on a variety of boards, including the Jewish Family
Service Agency, Camp Solomon Schechter and Beth Tikvah Synagogue.
The opportunity to combine his professional interests with his love
of the Jewish community was one that made this position more attractive
to him.
"For the last few years, my health-care experience has become
more involved in the residential side and more involved in home
care and support for seniors," he explained. "When this
job came up I thought it was an interesting opportunity to combine
my managing experience with my knowledge of health care.
"Being able to make a difference to Jewish seniors and their
families is really what drew me to this," he continued. "But
I know that no matter where I go, people are going to want to talk
about Louis Brier. I also know that you can do 95 per cent of the
things right and five per cent of the things not quite as well and
people will be talking about the five per cent."
Kafka said he also expects it to be a challenge to balance expectations
throughout all the services of the campus. As an example, he suggested
that the residents always expect the food to taste the same as it
did when they were cooking their own meals.
"The reality is that it's not going to be the same but somehow
we have to make it as good and nutritious as we can," he said.
"We have to balance and manage expectations."
Kafka's other major concern is the campus's continuing financial
stability.
"There's no shortage of really good ideas but there is a limited
amount of money, staff and services available and you have to find
out what the priorities are and focus on those," he said. "Louis
Brier is going to continue to need the support of the Jewish community
over the coming years. We're also going to need money, so I hope
people will say that Louis Brier does a great job and we have to
support it."
For more information about the Dr. Irving and Phyliss Snider Campus
for Jewish Seniors, call 604-261-9376.
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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