When illness strikes, so much is at
stake, yet a person feels like he is lost in a forest with no way out.
Thankfully, our wonderful Jewish community has many organizations to help
people who find themselves in that situation. There are a number of
organizations in the NY/ NJ area that help people with everything, from
expediting appointments to getting insurance coverage to running to a pharmacy for
an unusual medication. They include Echo, Refuah Health Line, Chaim Medical,
and RCCS. Our Baltimore organizations also help people with advocacy and
referrals. All the organizations in both cities work together and assist each
other serve the people who need their help.
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Rabbi Pinchas Rabinowitz, patient
advocate for Bikur Cholim, explained how he gets involved to help patients and
their families: “The Jewish community is like a family,” he said, “and Bikur
Cholim has made it our business to take care of people who have a medical
problem as if they were our actual brothers or sisters. People are always
surprised to hear how much Bikur Cholim can do. These are things that people
don’t think about unless they need our services.”
He gives an example of a person
diagnosed with a brain tumor. There are all kinds of brain tumors, and they may
be in different parts of the brain. Depending on where the tumor is located,
different kinds of specialists are needed. Rabbi Rabinowitz has made it his
business to develop personal relationships with doctors as well as people who
are knowledgeable about various medical problems all over Maryland. He uses his
connections to research and find the best doctor for each specific case.
“We are very fortunate in Maryland to have a
number of top hospitals, such as John Hopkins, University of Maryland, and
Shock Trauma.” says Rabbi Rabinowitz. “Usually, a person does not have to
travel out of Maryland to receive great care. When someone calls and asks for
my help in finding the best doctor for his condition, I ask him to send me
information about his case, like CT scans, MRIs, and other tests. Since I have
connections with doctors who are experts in each field, I am able to get advice
as to which doctor is best.”
Knowing the doctor you want to use
is only the first step. Then you must get an appointment. If a person has a
serious condition, he does not want to wait six months as is the case with
doctors. Rabbi Rabinowitz is sometimes able to get in touch with a doctor
personally and find an earlier appointment. For example, sometimes a doctor might
tell the patient to come in early before office hours.
Dealing with 10 to 15 cases a week
from Baltimore, all over the U.S., and Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Rabinowitz has many
stories to tell. Once a patient with a brain tumor called and told him that the
doctor in his city said that removing the tumor would damage the optic nerve
and lead to blindness. Rabbi Rabinowitz had a relationship with a doctor who
was an expert in that field and connected the patient to him. The second doctor
was able to remove the tumor without affecting the optic nerve.
In addition to medical referrals,
Rabbi Rabinowitz also helps with patient advocacy. Once, a patient was waiting
in the hospital for a certain test that required the patient to be fasting.
When the test kept on being pushed off to another day, Rabbi Rabinowitz was
able to contact people in the hospital to have them schedule the test quickly,
so the patient would not have to fast unnecessarily.
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Jewish Caring Network also helps
with doctor referrals and patient advocacy. They work hand in hand with RCCS
and can tap into various grants that they offer. As Stacy Goldenberg, the
director of JCN, says, “Jewish Caring Network assists when a community member is
diagnosed with a life-threatening or serious illness. Often, it is hard to know
where to start. The JCN has a medical advisory board as well as a team of
doctors we reach out to for referrals, recommendations, guidance, and
assistance in getting appointments.”
Mrs. Goldenberg often receives calls when someone first hears
about their diagnosis. Members of the Jewish Caring Network’s team are close
with many doctors and are often able to get people appointments earlier. She
tells me about a woman who was staying at the Tikva House and was told that she
could not get some crucial testing done for two months. “With the help of our
dedicated medical board, we were able to get her testing done that week, while
she was still in town,” says Mrs. Goldenberg. “In fact, she just called to say
hello and to tell me that she feels strongly that had she waited the two
months, she would not be here to tell the story.”
When I asked Mrs. Goldenberg for another example of their
advocacy program, she told me about Miriam, whose husband was having a stroke.
Due to JCN’s immediate attention, she took her husband to the hospital which
saved his life.
Leeba Marks Friedman, a social worker who works for JCN part
time, connects people from Baltimore with the RCCS organization. “RCCS will
help a person to pay medical deductibles and gives money to help with things
like mortgage or rent payments,” Leeba explains. “Sometimes, if a person cannot
work, they will give money to cover their missing salary.” Leeba also works on
getting people other grants that can help them financially.
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Chai Lifeline also has a branch in Maryland. Racheli Daniel,
the Mid-Atlantic director, told me, “We have connections at the area hospitals
to enable us to refer patients to a great doctor, a different clinician, or the
right team and department. We have had several patients who were frustrated
with the long wait for the next available appointment and are thankful that our
medical advisory board members and other supporters have been helpful in
drastically cutting down the wait time for an appointment. Similarly, we have
referred families for a second opinion or connected them to the Chai Lifeline
support system in a different region altogether.”
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Finally, Relief, is an organization that helps people find
mental health practitioners. According to its head, Rabbi Yisroel Slansky,
“Relief has a database of hundreds of clinicians who are categorized by area of
specialty, modality, locations, insurance, and payment information. After
making hundreds of referrals a year and thousands since its inception in
Baltimore, in 2014, we see trends of who works best with which type of client
and which disorder. This information helps guide our future referrals and
directs people to the best mental health clinician. All our services are free
and completely confidential.”
It is really amazing to hear how the Jewish community has
developed so many organizations that have only one purpose – to help people at
a time of crisis. My hope is that the readers of this article never have
occasion to need these organizations, but if illness does strike, it is good to
know that help is available.
*Not their real name.
