ABSTRACT
The Jewish Association for Services for the Aged (JASA), based in New York City and covering Nassau and Suffolk counties as well, is a multi-purpose social service agency and an affiliate of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. JASA provides a variety of services, including case work, group work, housing, legal services, nutrition and transportation. JASA’s home attendant program operates under strict fiscal controls: every expenditure from salaries to pencils is regulated by New York City’s Medicaid office. EISEP evolved from a rather informal housekeeping/homemaking program, based at Montefiore Hospital that existed even before Medicaid. Although EISEP provides vital services to thousands of elderly people, its continued existence depends on more than the determination and political power of the 60 home attendant service agencies and their Council. Maintaining the elderly at home and thereby avoiding, or at least deferring, institutionalization should be more than a strictly economic consideration: humanitarian concerns are at issue as well.
