Los Angeles Jewish Home Unveils Auerbach Behavioral Health Center Filling Community Void for Adul...( RESEDA Calif. April 28 /- The non...),Health

RESEDA, Calif., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The nonprofit Los Angeles Jewish Home announced today the opening of the Lisa and Ernest Auerbach Behavioral Health Center to serve adults 55 and over who are experiencing mental or emotional changes that require intensive treatment.

The opening of the 10-bed center comes at a time when many privately operated psychiatric units are closing or cutting their beds across Southern California. The most recent was the closing of Ventura County's only hospital inpatient program targeted at seniors.

"It is imperative to have such a facility available to the community around us given the growing need and the aging of our society," said Los Angeles Jewish Home CEO/President Molly Forrest. "Seniors are often among our most vulnerable individuals, and having a center such as ours to serve this group and their loved ones is a service we are delighted to be able to provide."

As a nationally recognized leader in geriatric care and services, the Jewish Home maintains medical and mental health research partnerships with the region's leading medical institutions, including the UCLA School of Medicine and the USC Keck School of Medicine. The knowledge gained through these partnerships is expected to better the treatment of patients in the Home's new Behavioral Center as well as lead to new models of care.

Gay Howard, administrator of the Home's Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Medical Center where the Auerbach unit is located, said, "There are so many issues we need to be aware of with an aging population. Depression and suicidal tendencies increase with age. The historical way of dealing with these issues was simply medication, observation and transferring them out. Our goal is to now provide an opportunity to utilize highly advanced, multiple-integrated geriatric specialties including innovative activities and therapy to help patients."

The facilities of the Auerbach Behavioral Health Center include exclusively
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