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Helping Survivors of Trauma

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Holy Name Medical Center

Holy Name Medical Center is a comprehensive 361-bed acute care facility, which provides technologically advanced, compassionate and personalized care across a continuum that encompasses education, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and wellness maintenance. The Medical Center, located in Bergen County, N.J., has nearly 4,000 employees and admits about 30,000 patients each year.

The Medical Center has a national reputation for providing culturally sensitive care to a diverse population, drawing patients from across the New York City region to its specialty centers and renowned doctors. The hospital is known as a high quality, low cost provider of extraordinary clinical care given by compassionate, highly-trained physicians and staff. That is why ThisPlaceIsDifferent.org.

The Blue Card is a national nonprofit organization whose sole mission is to assist Holocaust survivors in need. The organization started in Germany in 1934 to provide assistance to Jews fleeing that country’s growing persecution. The Blue Card’s name came from the stamp and blue card a donor received when they made a donation to a Jewish family in need. In 1939, The Blue Card was reestablished in the United States to continue aiding refugees of Nazi persecution resettling in America.

The Blue Card is based out of New York, but helps survivors in more than 35 states and provides aid to more than 3,000 Holocaust survivor households. Programs include: Emergency Cash Assistance Program; In-Home Care Services; Emergency Prevention; Health and Wellness and Educational Outreach. To deliver these programs we work with a network of social services agencies and Jewish organizations who vet and refer clients. The work of The Blue Card is supported by the Claims Conference, grants and individual donors. We have a four-star Charity Navigator rating. To learn more about The Blue Card go to: www.bluecardfund.org.

The Blue Card Foundation

In 2018, The Blue Card, already a lifeline to so many Holocaust survivors, received a two-year grant from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care to promote person-centered trauma-informed (PCTI) services and help Holocaust survivors age in place. The objective of this grant was to train medical professionals (physicians, dentists and nurses) about the triggers and impact of trauma on Holocaust survivors and how a PCTI approach promotes well-being and can help avoid re-traumatization. The Blue Card partnered with The Russell Barrie Institute for Simulation Learning (ISL) at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey to develop an interactive web-based experience with simulated situations to train these medical professionals. The ISL will house this training module on its own server, making this training sustainable once the JFNA funding has ended.

Jewish Federations of North America

There are about 80,000 Holocaust survivors living in the United States today. Many are 85 and older, and as many as 1 in 3 live in poverty. Social isolation, poor health, and depression are common, stark reminders that the scars of trauma can last a lifetime and that, for this most vulnerable of groups, time is running short for us to help heal them.

In 2015, The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) received a grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living/Administration on Aging to develop innovations in ‘person-centered, trauma-informed’ (PCTI) care for Holocaust survivors and to build the capacity of the Aging Network to provide PCTI care to Holocaust survivors and their family caregivers. PCTI care, as defined and developed by JFNA, is a holistic approach to service provision that promotes the empowerment and well-being of trauma survivors by systematically infusing knowledge about trauma into agency-wide programs, policies, and procedures. JFNA used the grant and additional philanthropic dollars to create the Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care, which to date has funded over 400 PCTI programs across the country for Holocaust survivors and their family caregivers. The initial ACL/AoA grant served over 15,000 Holocaust survivors and over 4,000 of their family caregivers, and trained 10,000 professionals in the PCTI approach.

In 2020, with growing awareness of the prevalence and impact of trauma in the lives of older adults, ACL/AoA awarded JFNA a new grant to develop innovations in PCTI care for Holocaust survivors, older adults with a history of trauma, and their family caregivers. Older veterans and first responders; older survivors of crime, domestic violence, and natural disasters; and older adults who have been traumatized by racial, ethnic, economic, and gender discrimination will all be reached by the grant. With Holocaust survivors as our guides and teachers, we will enshrine their legacy of resilience and hope, as we work to build a national Aging Services Network that ensures that all older adults with a history of trauma are able to receive the care they need to flourish despite the trauma. Our new name, the JFNA Center on Aging and Trauma, reflects this new goal agingandtrauma.org.

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) represents 146 Jewish Federations and over 300 Network communities, which raise and distribute more than $3 billion annually and through planned giving and endowment programs to support social welfare, social services and educational needs. The Federation movement, collectively among the top 10 charities on the continent, protects and enhances the well-being of Jews worldwide through the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world), tzedakah (charity and social justice) and Torah (Jewish learning).

Resources

  • CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center. (2020).  https://candlesholocaustmuseum.org/
  • Eisinger, M.A., Bedney, B.J. (2018, Spring). Teaching about trauma: Models for training service providers in person-centered, trauma informed care. Kavod, 8.
  • Federman, D.J., Band-Winterstein, T., Sterenfeld, G.Z. (2016). The body as narrator: Body movement memory and the life stories of holocaust survivors. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 21(1), 16-29.
  • Green, B.L. et al. (2015). Trauma-informed medical care: A CME communication training for primary care providers. Family Medicine 47(1), 7-14.
  • The Hidden Child Foundation. (2020). Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.adl.org/holocaust-education/hidden-child-foundation
  • Raja, S., Hoersch, M., Rajagopalan, C.F., and Chang, P. (2014). Treating patients with traumatic life experiences: Providing trauma-informed care. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 145(3), 238-245.
  • Sadetzki, S., Chetrit, A., Freedman, L. S., Hakak, N., Barchana, M., Catane, R., Shani, M. (2017, September). Cancer risk among Holocaust survivors in Israel: A nationwide study. Cancer, 123(17), 3335-3345
  • US Department of Health and Human Services (2014).  SAMHSA's concept of trauma and guidance for trauma-informed approach.
  • The Azrieli Foundation.  Helping Holocaust Survivors in Need.

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