(781) 647-5327
1430 Main Street
Waltham, MA 02451
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Jewish Family and Children’s Services
We offer comprehensive, compassionate geriatric care to help senior adults live healthy, independent, and meaningful lives.

Jewish Family and Children's Services offers the most extensive continuum of services for seniors throughout Greater Boston. We offer comprehensive, compassionate geriatric care to help senior adults live healthy, independent, and meaningful lives.
Our services include support and education for the transitions of aging as well as short and long-term care, geriatric care management, mental health counseling, and support for people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers.
Our programs include:
- Aging Well At Home
- CJP SeniorDirect
- Geriatric Care Management - Your Elder Experts
- Geriatric Institute
- Geriatric Mental Health
- Guardianship
- Home Care
- Long-Term Care Ombudsman
- Parkinson's Family Support
- Schechter Holocaust Services
- Visiting Nurse Association
JF&CS brings services to areas with high concentrations of elderly residents. These Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) help their residents remain independent by building a self-sufficient community. The programs and services are designed to meet the needs articulated by the seniors who live in each specific community. All activities address primary causes of preventable institutionalization, including isolation and depression, poor management of chronic conditions, inadequate nutrition, falls, and misuse of medications.
Our Services Include
- Care planning and case management
- Medical and rehabilitative services
- Nutrition and/or fitness instruction
- Mental-health counseling
- Personal care
- Social activities such as celebrations, events, trips, and classes
Our Mission- The mission of the Geriatric Institute is to improve the quality of life in advanced age through the translation of medical, psychological, and socio-cultural research into community-based services. The Institute is particularly interested in linking discrete research findings to create and implement practical applications.
Our Vision
- Achieve national stature
- Implement demonstration projects that have broad application, and influence public policy and reimbursement systems
- Establish linkages with academic institutions that enrich opportunities for research and training
- Foster the integration of knowledge and experience gained from demonstration projects into mainstream senior services
Current and planned projects:
- Train front-line workers in JF&CS VNA and Homecare to detect depression and suicidality in the elderly
- Use wellness-promoting interventions in naturally occurring retirement communities
- Implement a multi-factorial approach to risk screening and preventing falls in frail elderly
- Improve quality of life for people with Parkinson’s and their families through targeted activities addressing symptoms, self-management, and support skills
The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program is a free service provided to nursing home residents and their families in the suburban areas west of Boston including Belmont, Brookline, Needham, Newton, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, and Weston. A corps of trained volunteers and staff visit residents in 30 nursing homes on a weekly basis. The program also serves as a resource for families and individuals looking for information about facilities providing short-term and long-term care.
The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program protects and advocates for nursing home residents by:
- Listening to their concerns
- Protecting their rights
- Working to resolve problems
- Restoring dignity to their lives
JF&CS has been under contract with Springwell, the west suburban Aging Service Access Point, to administer the program since 1983. It is part of a network of ombudsman programs in Massachusetts that are federally mandated and funded by the Older Americans Act.
