$1 million in funding
for security initiatives each year
Founded in 1951, Wexner Heritage Village is one of the oldest senior care providers in Central Ohio. At its founding, the institution was known as the Jewish Home for the Aged. Though they now serve both the Jewish and broader communities, Wexner Heritage Village remains firmly rooted in the faith and traditions of Judaism.
“WHV provides assisted living, memory care and hospice services, as well as subsidized housing for those who qualify. We also provide a number of different services through our skilled nursing facility,” says Chris Christian, president and chief operating officer at Wexner Heritage Village. “Part of that is traditional long-term care as well as short-term rehabilitation for people coming out of the hospital who need rehab and therapy after elective surgeries.”
Due to the vulnerable nature of their population, Wexner Heritage Village has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, they have gone to extraordinary ends to protect their residents from the virus; their team also worked tirelessly to combat the secondary challenges the virus presents, such as depression and isolation.
“When the county is experiencing an outbreak, there’s no visitation, so our team members have rallied to do numerous things to safely entertain and comfort our residents and help keep those family connections alive through window visits, Skyping, Facetime and video calls,” says Leslie Fulford, director of community outreach. “We’ve purchased tablets for our residents to use for family communication and set up a visiting area for residents to safely see their families through the windows with walkie talkies. We’ve tried really hard to keep those family touches available for our residents.”
“We’ve purchased tablets for our residents to use for family communication and set up a visiting area for residents to safely see their families through the windows with walkie talkies. We’ve tried really hard to keep those family touches available for our residents.” – Leslie Fulford, Director of Community Outreach
Their efforts have proved fruitful. At the time of this interview, Wexner Heritage Village boasted zero patient-to-patient transmission and only 21 cases, five of which were residents.
“As a community healthcare provider, we are dealing with the healthcare aspect of COVID-19 and trying to keep that as far away from those we care for and work with,” says Christian. “It has been an all-in kind of a year. Extraordinary measures and extraordinary expenses go along with that.”
“JewishColumbus has been extremely helpful in communicating this message. We’re doing everything we can as an organization to communicate out to our constituents and families most effectively. But the fact that we’ve had JewishColumbus helping us by telling our story, talking about what the partner agencies are doing and having them as an additional communication resource has been tremendously helpful.”
You can help the Wexner Heritage Village – and so many more local Jewish institutions – when you give to JewishColumbus. We support the Jewish Community at every stage and facet of life.
