WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, of which Senator Collins is Ranking Member, will hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine the unique health and social service needs of aging Holocaust survivors.
The panel will hear from Jack Rubin of Boynton Beach, Florida, a survivor of Auschwitz and three other concentration camps, about the plight many Holocaust survivors face today. In addition, Anat Bar-Cohen, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is scheduled to testify. Lawmakers will also hear testimony from survivor advocates and caregivers, who will discuss what services are available and what gaps and barriers exist today to serve the needs of this unique population.
Senator Collins said that availability of home health care to these individuals is an important issue that must also be examined. "Access to home care services is particularly important for Holocaust survivors because the emotional triggers that can be set off by institutional care may be devastating for them. It is no wonder that the focus of Jewish social services agencies is on keeping aging survivors in their home or in a familiar environment for as long as possible," Senator Collins explained.
There are an estimated 127,000 Holocaust survivors living in the United States who often face significant challenges due to the physical and emotional brutality they experienced decades ago. As these survivors grow older and their daily living activities become more challenging, the need and cost of providing care is expected to increase exponentially. Recent studies have shown higher incidences of cancer, osteoporosis and post-traumatic stress disorder among survivors and found that receiving care in an institutional setting can be particularly problematic for many. Uniformed staff, bed railings, daily routines and schedules, janitors walking with jangling keys, and even darkness-things that other residents would likely ignore-can take aging Holocaust survivors psychologically and emotionally back to their traumatic earlier days and cause intense distress. As a result, many organizations that care for elderly survivors focus on keeping them in their homes or in familiar environments for as long as possible.