Concern continues over Jewish Care

A FRESH raft of complaints about Jewish Care (Melbourne) have surfaced following an article in last week’s AJN (26/10), detailing shocking allegations by relatives of residents in the organisation’s aged-care facilities.

Several members of the Melbourne Jewish community have spoken out in support of the claims, raising fresh concerns about food standards, hygiene, staff shortages and the general level of care provided by the organisation.

The AJN passed their comments on to Jewish Care CEO Bill Appleby, who said in a statement that he welcomed feedback, but again failed to directly address the new allegations.

“Our mission to achieve excellence is an ongoing one and, with this in mind, we welcome feedback accompanied by helpful and specific information – dates, times, names – so that we can responsibly and accurately investigate incidents that are reported and follow them up directly with the complainants,” Appleby wrote.

“We know that this feedback will only help us improve our level of service and we seek to work in partnership with every family.

“Unfortunately, it is not possible for Jewish Care to respond to excerpts of letters from people who are unidentified, nor will we respond to claims based on hearsay.”

Appleby did, however, confirm that Jewish Care had availed staff of a counselling service to deal with issues, just days after the article “Jewish care under fire” was published.

He said workers at the aged-care provider had been “emotionally affected” by the article. “… many staff were directly and emotionally affected by the inaccurate and unwarranted article. As an employer that takes the wellbeing of our staff very seriously, we organised for counselling to be available to all staff who felt they needed some support.”

Despite a letter from Jewish Care that stated last week’s article “contains allegations that are untrue”, the relatives who made those claims stood by them.

Among others to come forward this week was Tova Seelig, whose mother received home help from the aged-care provider.

She told The AJN she was deeply unsatisfied with the level of care provided.

“In my dealing with Jewish Care, I found the people mostly unprofessional and uncaring and careless. Many mistakes were made, appointments that I made were not kept by management, and I was let down time and again.

“I was sent bills for services that were never carried out, and was constantly given excuses and apologies.”

Madeline Klein, who also contacted The AJN, expressed her concern that “the staff employed cannot distinguish a mezuzah from a door stopper and the fact that all the Jewishness has slipped off from the community organisation”.

ADAM KAMIEN

Jewish Care CEO Bill Appleby.