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Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche noted that, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Celebrating life – and the music that makes it worthwhile – is the focus of therapeutic music services at Los Angeles Jewish Health (LAJH). Conducted in partnership with the Music Therapy program at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), Los Angeles Jewish Health’s therapeutic music services bring CSUN students to the LAJH campus to stimulate and engage residents with population-appropriate activities. The students – juniors and seniors at CSUN – are working toward their Bachelor of Arts in Music Therapy; once they complete their degree, finish a six-month internship (including 1,200 hours of clinical training), and pass a board certification exam, they become board-certified music therapists. CSUN’s Music Therapy program – an important and growing major at the nexus of healthcare and music – is the only one in the California State University system. “Music therapy helps promote functional changes in behavior,” says Hilary Yip, chair of Music Therapy at CSUN. “It’s based on science – understanding how our bodies and brains react and respond to music. Music therapists work with people from infancy through their senior years, boosting their social and emotional skills, cognitive and motor skills, and the ability to communicate. For instance, music can help reduce the suffering of adolescents with depression and anxiety and assist adults with dementia in accessing their memories.” Los Angeles Jewish Health’s collaboration with CSUN is new, and Stacy Orbach, LAJH’s director of volunteer services, is already seeing results. “It’s a win-win situation because the students get experience in their field, and our residents benefit from afternoons filled with music and joy,” she says. “Music is so powerful: It can bring older adults back to a particular time and place in their lives. I’ve been amazed watching their reactions as they travel that path.” Music has always played a central role at Los Angeles Jewish Health, and volunteers frequently visit to share their talents with residents. But the joint effort with CSUN pairs music enjoyment with a more scientific approach. “One of the things that’s remarkable about the CSUN partnership is that it both benefits our seniors by making them feel good, and it is also data driven, producing findings that can contribute to the body of medical knowledge about aging and potentially improving seniors’ quality of life down the line,” says Dale Surowitz, chief executive officer and president of Los Angeles Jewish Health. The program is equally beneficial for the students, enabling them to acquire hands-on experience of going into the community and working with clients. “In class, they’re just playing music for each other, but at Los Angeles Jewish Health, they can witness, first-hand, how their music brings a smile to seniors’ faces,” Hilary says. “It’s so rewarding for them to elicit that reaction and to see how they can use music to impact someone else.” As part of the partnership, Stacy and LAJH Special Programs Coordinator Julie Lockman-Gold make presentations to CSUN Music Therapy students at the start of each semester, introducing them to Los Angeles Jewish Health and to the needs of its senior population. Over the course of the semester, the students build warm relationships with LAJH residents, forming bonds that enhance the seniors’ sense of fulfillment and well-being. “Our residents couldn’t be more enthusiastic about these interactions,” Julie says. “At the end of every session, they encourage the students to come back any time.” Early response to the program has made it a standout success. “I’m so delighted by the feedback we’ve received from our seniors,” Stacy says. “We’re in this partnership for the long term.”

The 20th Annual Executives Golf Classic is on Monday, August 28th, at North Ranch Country Club. Register online at https://www.theexecutives.org/. For more information please contact Sally Chasman 818.774.3331 or [email protected]

The Guardians 24th Annual Golf Tournament Monday, November 13 – 10am – 5pm Calabasas Country Club Information/Questions: 310-479-2468 | [email protected]

When Fountainview at Gonda Westside resident Shirley Groner was born in June 1915, the average life expectancy was 54 years. The idea of doubling that lifespan would have been inconceivable – and yet, 108 years later, Shirley is still going strong. The third of four sisters born and raised in the Chicago area, Shirley was a natural athlete – a talented swimmer and diver who brought the same passion and energy she displayed in the water to everything she did. It was that desire to jump in and experience life fully that led her to San Francisco as a young woman, where in a matter of months, she met and got engaged to her husband, Harold. They were together for 59 years, building a family and a life together that infused their partnership with love, fulfillment, and joy. Their daughter, Wendy Groner Strauss (who with her husband, Michael Strauss, also lives at Fountainview at Gonda Westside), says Shirley has always been a force of nature. “Mom is curious and engaged, and throughout her life she leaned into every opportunity,” Wendy notes. “If there was somewhere to go, she went; a place to explore, she seized the chance; people to talk to, she started chatting. I think being such a doer has helped keep her going all these years.” In addition to raising Wendy and her two brothers, Wayne and Brian, Shirley was constantly on the move, whether it was knitting sweaters for US soldiers, participating in Hadassah and B’nai Brith, or serving as president of the San Francisco chapter of City of Hope. She also embraced the arts, frequently attending ballet performances, writing her own poetry, and soaking up musical theater productions. Music was central to her identity, and she delighted in playing the cornet, a brass instrument similar to the trumpet. Although Harold’s passing in 2000 was difficult to bear, Shirley moved forward with her typical vigor, traveling frequently between Southern California and the East Coast to visit her 10 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren, and 24 great-great grandchildren. “Bubba is a fixture in my life. I have so many wonderful memories of spending time with her when I was growing up, not only at our house in Orange County but also traveling abroad,” says grandson Sasha Strauss. “She’s stylish and creative, and so open to new things. Whenever she had a chance for adventure, she would say ‘yes,’ and in that way (and so many others) she’s really a role model for me.” Embracing adventure has taken Shirley around the world, including Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Curacao, Honduras, Italy, the Seychelle Islands, and beyond. She has even been mushing with Alaskan huskies in Colorado in 32-degree-below-zero conditions! On a number of trips, she channeled her love of swimming into skindiving with her son-in-law, Michael, an orthopaedist and wound care specialist who spent over three decades traversing the globe as a doctor for the Navy SEALs. “Shirley is bold, there’s no question about it,” Michael says. “She’s also indefatigable: She would frequently accompany me to American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons meetings, spearheading some of the group’s charitable activities by helping to build playgrounds in cities from San Francisco to Washington, DC.” For years, Shirley lived in a senior living community in San Francisco, but during COVID, she headed south to be closer to Wendy and Michael and their sons, Sasha, an expert in brand strategy and a professor at USC and UCLA, and Ari, an electrical engineer. Wendy, still a working pharmacist, and Michael, an active LA-area surgeon, had been poised to take up residence at Fountainview at Gonda Westside when Shirley made the move to Los Angeles, and they were successful in securing her a spot, as well. “Living at Fountainview at Gonda Westside has been great for Mom: She frequently attends lectures and plays dominoes every night,” Wendy says. “Sometimes, she wins!” Sasha was recently a Fountainview at Gonda Westside guest lecturer, and he was proud to have his grandmother in the front row. “I spoke for a couple of hours, and Bubba was following along and keeping up the entire time, even more so than many of the other, much younger, attendees,” he says. “To have that kind of ability at 108 is nothing short of astonishing.” From her perspective, Shirley agrees that staying active has been central to her ability to thrive. But she has other ideas about what may be fueling her longevity, as well. “Healthy food helps,” she says. “Also, having a lot of love.”

The Guardians, a support group of Los Angeles Jewish Health has worked to honor and support older adults in our community for nearly nine decades. This June, to mark its 85th anniversary, the group hosted a Comedy Night event that raised critical funds for LAJH residents and further cemented The Guardians’ status as a dedicated protector of seniors across Los Angeles. Featuring headliner Sarah Silverman and three other comedians including Jeff Ross, Elon Gold, and Ken Garr, the event drew nearly 300 people to historic nightclub AVALON Hollywood. Comedian, actor, and writer Ben Gleib emceed the event, which kicked off with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 6 pm and lasted well into the evening. “Comedy Night has been one of our members’ most desired events for years, although we took a short break from it and are just now starting up again,” says Guardians President Anthony Behar. “Going forward, we’re going to alternate every year between Comedy Night and our always-successful real estate gala.” After subtracting the costs of the event, all proceeds from this year’s Comedy Night went directly to support the seniors at Los Angeles Jewish Health. The amount of money donated to LAJH was significantly higher thanks to the collaboration of the artists involved. “Everybody performed pro bono, and they were all amazing. Ben Gleib was particularly spectacular, keeping the crowd engaged and encouraging people to keep contributing,” Anthony says. Also critical to the night’s success was the involvement of event co-chairs Nathan Agam, Jason Berger, Dan Frankel, and Yossi Reinstein. “They did a fantastic job and really helped carry the event,” Anthony says. “I’m incredibly grateful for all their support.” Anthony says he is proud of what Comedy Night accomplished, both in terms of funds raised for, and awareness heightened about, Los Angeles Jewish Health. “I think it’s so important to have an impact and to support something that’s bigger than each of us individually,” he says. “I look at our elders, who laid the groundwork for everything good in our community when they were young, and I feel strongly that it’s my generation’s responsibility to do the same thing now.”

Tip: Drinking water on a regular schedule is especially important for older adults Water. Just plain pure water is the real fountain of youth for older adults. Unfortunately, around the world many seniors do not have easy access to an adequate supply. One of the most common reasons someone living in a nursing home is transferred to the hospital is because they became dehydrated. Older adults have less water in their bodies to start with than younger adults and many older adults are on medications that push water that accumulates in their legs or lungs out. The problem is the fluid going out also contains vital minerals like sodium and potassium. Additionally a natural part of aging is a reduction of what triggers our brains to be thirsty and stimulate us to drink. Seniors should be careful relying too much on only drinking when they are thirsty. Many drinks that we consume like soda, coffee, tea and especially alcohol are not as effective as plain water in preventing dehydration. The other problem that older adults have in consuming enough water is often their bladders cannot hold onto their urine as well as it did when it was younger. This leads them to not drink even when they are thirsty for fear and embarrassment of wetting themselves or having to race to the bathroom at an awkward time. Water is necessary for nearly every bodily function, from lubricating joints to regulating body temperature and pumping blood to the muscles. Researchers say that as people age, they need to drink more water to compensate for changes in their body temperature regulation. They say dehydration can cause a number of ailments, including muscle pain, fatigue, and confusion. Seniors especially older men are less likely to be wary and more likely to ignore signs of dehydration. They never experienced the severe symptoms associated with dehydration and, when they recall the times when they were dehydrated when they were younger, the problems were usually mildly and they were able to compensate without much effort. Unfortunately, that compensation mechanism does not work as well when we get older and we are much more at risk especially with exercise or very warm environments. Even being slightly dehydrated to 98 percent of normal can affect one’s metabolism negatively and reduce organ performance. Aging also decreases a person’s ability to sweat and less sweating reducing the body’s ability to cool in a hot environment. Older adults may have more trouble noticing that they are becoming overheated and thus more vulnerable to heat-related illness such as heat stroke. Although it is true that many older adults complain how hard it is to feel warm (because of loss of fat below the skin), hot weather is much more dangerous. My best advice is to schedule yourself to drink water regularly rather than waiting to feel thirsty. Noah S. MarcoLOS ANGELES JEWISH HEALTH CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER (CMO)