At Jewish Family Service, we are most honored to work with Holocaust Survivors and their caregivers.   We have the gift of being awarded grants through different sources. The programs are made possible by funding through Jewish Federations of North America, the Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, JFS Rockland and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County.

A critical component of serving Holocaust survivors is that as a provider agency, our staff must have a “Person Centered, Trauma Informed” approach. The staff must be knowledgeable in this approach and we also need to teach others who work with survivors about this approach. Several staff and interns of JFS Orange recently attended a two-day conference in which “Trauma-Informed Care for Holocaust Survivors” was the theme. I asked those who attended to share one “take-away” from the conference. This was challenging, as we all came back so inspired. In this blog post, and the next, I will share some of the highlights that I heard from various staff members and interns.

“I enjoyed the conference very much and got a lot from the different speakers. Deborah Courtney, Ph. D, spoke about how we tend to have one fixed approach for every client. We need to make sure to tailor the intervention for each client and we should meet them where they are. That really spoke to me and I thought it was meaningful! Another moment that I really enjoyed was during my breakout group. We discussed group therapy and some people where having a hard time with calling “support groups” a “therapy group.” One person made a great point and said that support groups may not be “group therapy” per se, but that they were therapeutic for the group members; even an intake screening or assessment could be therapeutic for a client and be meaningful. I really enjoyed the overall experience and appreciate the opportunity! Thank you for bringing me in to the conference. ~ Maria Benaissa, BA, Social Work Intern, Adelphi

“The conference was amazing thank you again for inviting us. The first thing that I took away was that to help trauma victims you need to admit you can never understand what they went through. That was so powerful because when you think about it, it’s true. They don’t want someone to pretend they understand; they want someone to help them. I also took away a lot of valuable skills and experience from the group at the end of the day. Hearing from all of the different professionals share what they do and what works for them was great and gave me a lot of ideas going forward in this profession.” ~Matthew Wichlinski, BS, Social Work Intern, Adelphi University

“’Trauma’ and how we process it, was presented in such simple by Dr. Deborah Courtney. I learned that if it’s not processed at the time of the trauma, the fragmented pieces get stuck in processing. The memory and the feeling associated with it get stuck in the hippocampus. We cannot heal the trauma, without healing the body. There are coping skills that can be learned including guided mediation, deep breathing, and learning ways to self-calm.

She also discussed that aside from individual professionals being aware of trauma, agencies as entities need to have a culture of sensitivity. I love the fact that our agency can offer such a supportive environment. We do so much already; it’s great to know that we can always learn more and do more.” ~Doris Rubinsky, Director of Safety Net Programs

I will share more in upcoming blogposts. If you know of a Holocaust survivor who needs and is open to care, please contact our agency. With an open heart, and some additional tools in our tool belt, we are so ready to offer our services. 845.341.1173 ext. 306