About

Dear Protea Hills Residents,

My ‘love-affair’ with the project, which two years later was named “Protea Hills”, started in 2008.

I have believed in this unique project from day one, when Yehoshua Shponder came to me with his idea to build a retirement community in the Judaean hills.

The plans, the managerial ideas, the recommended physical building, the administrative array, the departments within the village, as well as the pricing methods were all laid down before us. We kept discussing them among the entrepreneurs and the management company.

Decisions were made, the banks gave their approval, architects and engineers started drawing, and I sat down to write my Credo as to how a retirement village should be run.

This Credo has been formulated within me after years of working with people in general (as a psychologist in the IDF)and with retired people in particular in Beit Protea and in Protea Village.

My upbringing, what I have been brought up by also contributed to the development of the managerial philosophy which I have adopted, and which, I believe, has proven itself in the various facilities that I have run in the past 32 years.

It appears that my challenging nature, my motivation to invest in a new retirement-community and my willingness to once again show that if the goals are right and the implementation is fitting, then the outcome will also be successful.

That universal word – goals – becomes more significant to me when I ‘translate’ it to improving the quality of life of the retiring residents who put their trust in me by moving to live in the facility which I run.

I believe that I have managed to realize  most of these goals, both in Protea Village and in Beit Protea.

Having really thought it out, I have decided to put the major goals and my professional Credo in writing . I have found that the list is not that short,  and needs to be constantly refreshed and upgraded so that it responds to reality at any period in the life of the residents.

Following is my “shopping list” which I have been carrying with me throughout the years, and which I take with me to any new project, to any “new beginning” confronting me in Protea Hills.

The residents need to feel physical, economic and social security.

The residents require full recognition of their personality and their individual needs.

The residents need and are interested in getting quick response to their requests.

The residents are interested in new experiences.

Ageing is not a disease, but rather a period of life, not necessarily a stage of illness and deterioration.

Each resident is a person unto him/herself, and this is how each of them is to be treated.

Each resident is entitled to be part of the decisions regarding his future.

Each resident is entitled to be treated with full respect.

All the residents need to feel that the staff treats them with appreciation and that whatever we do is for them.

We have to create an atmosphere of freedom, openness, independence; we need tp provide information, respect privacy and maintain freedom of speech.

It is our duty to serve the residents and their families.

We have to create a ‘pool’ of leisure-time activities which emphasize the residents’ existing capabilities side by side with developing new ones.

We have to create, to support and to maintain the autonomous way of life suitable to retirees.

We need to build a home which provides good and quality life here, with optimism yet with supervision.

It is our obligation to provide our residents with the best quality service, and it is the residents who determine what the service is.

We have to provide in this home continuity of treatment to all residents – independent, frail and disabled.

We have to be in contact with the surrounding community and reach out rather than withdrawing into our own.

We can do all of this if our staff is professional, devoted, respectful and service-oriented.

Only you are the ‘judge’ whether I have succeeded in applying the above 18 principles in Protea Hills .