BOSTON – A new study published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) found that modifying a well-established and highly successful delirium prevention program for use when in-person or face-to-face interactions are limited or restricted is both feasible and acceptable to hospital staff and patients. 

Developed because of COVID-19, the modified and extended Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP-ME) multicomponent delirium prevention protocols provide support for remote or physically distanced applications. Implemented at four HELP sites across the country, the adaptations necessary for HELP-ME were feasible to implement and provided a way to continue support during the pandemic, allowing for new connections to be made and strengthening existing relationships with nursing, physical and occupational therapy, HELP staff and volunteers in delirium prevention.

Delirium is a common complication of hospitalization for older adults, characterized by an acute change in attention and cognition, and associated with serious complications, including increased rates of morbidity, institutionalization, and mortality. More than 2.6 million adults, age 65 years and older develop delirium each year, with associated healthcare costs attributable to delirium estimated at more than $164 billion per year in the United States. However, numerous studies have shown at least 40% of cases may be preventable using multicomponent delirium prevention strategies, such as HELP, which has been implemented in more than 200 hospitals worldwide since 1999.

Tamara G. Fong, M.D., Ph.D. (first author), Associate Scientist, Aging Brain Center, Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, and Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., M.P.H. (senior author), Director, Aging Brain Center, and Milton and Shirley F. Levy Family Chair and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, led the study, “The Modified and Extended Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP-ME): A Remote Model of Care to Expand Delirium Prevention,” which developed modifications to HELP that would allow clinicians to continue to implement delirium prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in other settings where the patient must be isolated from staff caring for them or where sufficient staff may not be available (such as rural settings or during natural disasters). 

The study achieved full implementation and high adherence across all four sites. Qualitative feedback from sites during the focus group was largely positive, and supported the overall acceptability of the HELP-ME strategy. For example, all sites reported that participating in HELP-ME revitalized their overall HELP program, because it helped them recognize that it was still possible to implement intervention protocols even during COVID-19. 

“This is an important contribution to the care of older hospitalized adults because while multicomponent delirium prevention strategies like HELP have proven to be effective, many rely on an interdisciplinary team of hospital staff and trained volunteers to administer face-to-face intervention protocols.” said Dr. Inouye, who developed HELP. “During the COVID-19 pandemic when access to patients was limited, HELP-ME was both feasible and acceptable to patients and staff.”  

“HELP-ME also contributed to the education of hospital nursing staff regarding the importance of delirium prevention especially during COVID-19 more broadly, and helped to support nursing staff throughout a difficult time. Importantly, HELP-ME allowed for additional interaction that would not have otherwise been possible during the pandemic,” said Dr. Fong.
 
“HELP-ME has the potential to broaden the reach of already established multicomponent delirium prevention models to aid in improving the care of older adults,” said Mr. Jason Albaum, second author on the study.
 
The participating HELP sites included: Maine Medical Center, Allegheny Health Network, California Pacific Medical Center, University of Utah Health. Coauthors also joined from Vassar College and Michigan Medicine.

Funding came from an Interventional Studies in Aging Center pilot grant from the Marcus Institute for Aging Research and from the National Institute on Aging (Grant no. R33AG071744 to Dr. Inouye).

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, was founded in 1903 and today is a national leader dedicated to empowering seniors to live their best lives. Hebrew SeniorLife cares for more than 3,000 seniors a day across six campuses throughout Greater Boston. Locations include: Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-Boston and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-NewBridge in Dedham; NewBridge on the Charles, Dedham; Orchard Cove, Canton; Simon C. Fireman Community, Randolph; Center Communities of Brookline; and Jack Satter House, Revere. Hebrew SeniorLife also trains more than 1,000 future health care professionals each year, and conducts influential research into aging at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, which has a robust research portfolio whose NIH funding in 2021 places it in the top 10% of NIH-funded institutions. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit our website or follow us on our blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research
Scientists at the Marcus Institute seek to transform the human experience of aging by conducting research that will ensure a life of health, dignity, and productivity into advanced age. The Marcus Institute carries out rigorous studies that discover the mechanisms of age-related disease and disability; lead to the prevention, treatment, and cure of disease; advance the standard of care for older people; and inform public decision-making.

Amir Baniassadi, PhD, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, has been named a 2023 STAT Wunderkind. 

STAT, a journalism outlet covering health, medicine, and the life sciences, selected the 2023 Wunderkinds from a pool of more than 200 nominees across North America. This award recognizes 28 early-career scientists and clinicians who are doing groundbreaking work and blazing new trails as they attempt to answer some of the biggest questions in science and medicine. 

STAT says it set out to celebrate the unheralded heroes of science and medicine, poring over hundreds of nominations from across North America in search for the next generation of scientific superstars. “We were on the hunt for the most impressive doctors and researchers on the cusp of launching their careers, but not yet fully independent,” said the STAT announcement. “This year, as in past years, we’ve found inspiring stories and innovative research. All are blazing new trails as they attempt to answer big questions in science and medicine.”

According to the STAT announcement: “Engineer Amir Baniassadi moved from studying heat to researching how heat affects elderly people.”

While Dr. Baniassadi was getting his PhD in environmental engineering at Arizona State University, he studied simulation after simulation of what would happen in cities like Phoenix if the power went out in the middle of summer. But no matter how much he learned about cooling cities and mitigating heat, he couldn’t help but think about the people inside those hot buildings and what was happening to them.

So for his post-doctoral fellowship, he switched to studying humans themselves, giving elderly people Oura electronic wearable rings and outfitting their homes with sensors to measure how temperature affected how they slept and their cognitive ability. 

While Baniassadi had studied heat exposure for six years, he had always been able to afford air conditioning. It wasn’t until his research brought him inside people’s homes that he truly understood.

“I sat with a 93-year-old person inside their home during a July heatwave, and it was unbelievable how hot it was in their home,” he said. “And they were sitting naked and refused to turn their conditioning on because they said, ‘Oh, I want to save on electricity bill.’”

“I had no idea what it means to sit in a room where it’s 90% relative humidity and 90 degrees Fahrenheit . . . I knew it’s bad. I knew you should avoid it. I knew how to calculate or simulate or prevent predict[ions] in the future. But I didn’t know what it means,” said Baniassadi. 

The empathy and understanding he’s gained since switching from engineering to doing aging research in people’s homes, he said, ‘helps me do better science.’”

About Amir Baniassadi
Amir Baniassadi is a T32 post-doctoral research fellow working on environmental health, and in particular, the health and well-being of older adults within the built environment. Before joining the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Dr. Baniassadi was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he researched climate adaptation and mitigation within the built environment. He has a PhD in civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering from Arizona State University and a BSc degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tehran. He is a research fellow in medicine, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

About STAT
STAT delivers trusted and authoritative journalism about health, medicine, and the life sciences. Millions of new readers turned to STAT as the publication sounded the alarm early on about the COVID-19 pandemic. STAT journalists go deep in tough-minded coverage of the business of making medicines, health tech, science, and public health.

STAT takes you inside academic labs, biotech boardrooms, and political backrooms. They cast a critical eye on scientific discoveries, scrutinize corporate strategies, and chronicle roiling battles for talent, money, and market share. They examine controversies and puncture hype. With an award-winning newsroom, STAT gives you indispensable insights and exclusive stories on the technologies, personalities, power brokers, and political forces driving massive changes in the life science industry — and a revolution in human health. These are the stories that matter to us all.

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching, and redefining the possibilities of aging. Hebrew SeniorLife cares for more than 4,500 seniors a day across six campuses throughout Greater Boston. Locations include: Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-Boston and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-NewBridge in Dedham; NewBridge on the Charles, Dedham; Orchard Cove, Canton; Simon C. Fireman Community, Randolph; Center Communities of Brookline, Brookline; and Jack Satter House, Revere. Founded in 1903, Hebrew SeniorLife also conducts influential research into aging at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, which has a portfolio of more than $85 million, making it one of the largest gerontological research facilities in the U.S. in a clinical setting. It also trains more than 1,000 geriatric care providers each year. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit our website or follow us on our blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

BOSTON – In a study published in the journal Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorder, researchers reported on their effort to improve and validate tools used to assess the severity of a condition called delirium, an acute confusional state often experienced by older hospitalized patients. The aim was to more accurately define methods for detecting and measuring delirium symptom severity, which could in turn lead to improved prevention and treatment for patients at risk. Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Aging Brain Center at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, was principal investigator. Lead author was Sarinnapha M. Vasunilashorn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Division of General Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and member of the Aging Brain Center Working Group at the Marcus Institute.

Delirium is a clinical syndrome characterized by acute decline in cognition, which can present as inattention, disorientation, lethargy or agitation, and perceptual disturbance. Delirium is common among older hospitalized patients, and can lead to poor outcomes, including prolonged hospital stays, deep psychological stress for patients and their families, functional decline, and in worst cases, death. With in-hospital mortality rates for patients with delirium of 25–33 percent and annual health care costs in excess of $182 billion in the U.S. alone, delirium has garnered increasing attention as a worldwide public health and patient safety priority.

In large part because of Dr. Inouye’s pioneering research on delirium, the condition has shown to be preventable, or at minimum its severity mitigated, with proper patient assessment and effective protocols included to detect and treat symptoms. Although several delirium severity assessment tools currently exist, most have been developed without use of advanced measurement methods and have not been rigorously validated.

Accurately identifying the severity of delirium a patient experiences is critical to developing effective treatment. For any medical disorder, severity is a complex topic and may mean different things to different stakeholders. From a clinical perspective, severity may reflect the likelihood of an adverse outcome or the urgency for symptom treatment. For patients and their families, severity may impact the level of distress they experience or impair patient function and recovery.

Researchers in this study performed a literature review and used an expert panel process and advanced data analytic techniques to identify a set of items for use in developing a new delirium severity instrument. The process revealed several characteristics of an ideal instrument. It should address a broad spectrum of delirium symptoms, should be proven to be reliable, yield diagnosis by severity rating and criteria, and be able to be administered quickly and easily by minimally trained raters. 

Using this information, the researchers developed a 17-item set of criteria that they, along with the panel of experts, agreed captures the severity of delirium. This study indicates that high-quality delirium severity instruments should ultimately have immediate relevant application to clinical care and quality improvement efforts.

“Moving beyond consideration of delirium as present or absent, delirium severity represents an important outcome for evaluating preventive and treatment interventions, and tracking the course of patients,” said Dr. Inouye, who also holds appointments as Professor of Medicine at HMS and BIDMC.

Dr. Vasunilashorn, who is also Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, added, “As a result of this study, we have more fully conceptualized delirium severity and have identified characteristics of an ideal delirium severity instrument.”

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01AG044518 [S.K.I./R.N.J.], K01AG057836 [S.M.V.], R03AG061582 [S.M.V.], R01AG030618 [E.R.M.], K24AG035075 [E.R.M.], R24AG054259 [S.K.I.], K07AG041835 [S.K.I.], P01AG031720 [S.K.I.]) and the Alzheimer’s Association (AARF-18-560786 [S.M.V.]).

About the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research
Scientists at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute seek to transform the human experience of aging by conducting research that will ensure a life of health, dignity, and productivity into advanced age. The Marcus Institute carries out rigorous studies that discover the mechanisms of age-related disease and disability; lead to the prevention, treatment, and cure of disease; advance the standard of care for older people; and inform public decision-making.

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching, and redefining the possibilities of aging. Based in Boston, the nonprofit, non-sectarian organization has provided communities and health care for seniors, research into aging, and education for geriatric care providers since 1903. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit http://www.hebrewseniorlife.org and our blog, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

BOSTON — Researchers from Harvard-affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research (IFAR), in collaboration with scientists from a number of international institutes, have identified a genetic variant regulating a gene responsible for bone mineral density and fracture risk. Findings from this study—funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—are published in the journal Nature and could lead to interventions that may prevent fractures in older adults.

Osteoporosis, a word meaning “porous bone,” is a disease that weakens bones, making them brittle and susceptible to fracture. According to the NIH, an estimated 53 million Americans have osteoporosis or are at risk of developing the disease due to low bone mass. Previous research has found risk factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and family history contribute to the development of osteoporosis.

“Our study explores the hereditary aspect of osteoporosis by investigating the role our genes play in determining bone mineral density and who is at risk of fracture due to low bone density,” explains senior author Douglas Kiel, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center at IFAR, Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. “Understanding the genomics underlying skeletal fragility (osteoporosis) may lead to preventative interventions that ultimately reduce fractures as we age.”

For the present study, the research team sequenced the entire genome of more than 2,800 people and combined this with exome sequencing as well as another 3,500 people with “deep imputation” of their genotyping results, which is a way to fill in information about the unanalyzed portions of the genome by incorporating the data coming from the 2,800 people with sequencing of their genomes. The results confirmed that some of the genetic variants were associated with bone mineral density by comparing their data with information from more than 20,000 other research participants. The investigators then looked at data from many other studies (totaling more than half-a-million people) and determined that some of these variants also influenced a person’s risk of breaking a bone.

Study results show that a gene involved at the earliest stages of human development, the engrailed homeobox-1 gene, plays a central role in regulating bone density. This is the first time that researchers have connected the gene’s product, the protein EN1, to bone biology in adults. Furthermore, this study validates the use of whole-genome, sequencing-based discovery and deep imputation as sound methods for identifying novel genetic associations. “This study is one of several that have identified relatively rare sequence variants associated with complex phenotypes and disorders, such as osteoporotic fractures and low BMD in general populations, suggesting the value of applying whole genome sequencing in identifying genetic determinants of common disorders,” according to Dr. Yi-Hsiang Hsu, one of the lead authors and a statistical geneticist at Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Dr. Kiel says, “Our findings enhance understanding of the genetics underlying the development of osteoporosis. Ideally, genomic research will one day lead to more personalized interventions (precision medicine) that, in this case, will reduce bone loss and prevent fractures in older adults.”

Dr. Kiel’s work was funded by grants R01AR061162 and R01AR041398 from the NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).This work is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAMS or NIH. This work was partially supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study (Contract No. N01-HC-25195) and its contract with Affymetrix, Inc. for genotyping services (Contract No. N02-HL-6-4278). Funding for sequencing was supported by NHLBI grant 5RC2HL102419 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for the project, Building on GWAS for NHLBI-diseases: the U.S. CHARGE consortium (CHARGE-S). Funding for genotyping was supported by NIAMS grant RC2AR058973 through the ARRA for the project, GWAS in MrOS and SOF. The NIH’s National Institute on Aging, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute also provided support.

About Nature
Nature is a weekly international journal publishing the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature also provides rapid, authoritative, insightful and arresting news and interpretation of topical and coming trends affecting science, scientists and the wider public.

About the Institute for Aging Research
Scientists at the Institute for Aging Research seek to transform the human experience of aging by conducting research that will ensure a life of health, dignity and productivity into advanced age. The Institute carries out rigorous studies that discover the mechanisms of age-related disease and disability; lead to the prevention, treatment and cure of disease; advance the standard of care for older people; and inform public decision-making.

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching and redefining the possibilities of aging. Based in Boston, the non-profit, non-sectarian organization has provided communities and health care for seniors, research into aging, and education for geriatric care providers since 1903. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit https://www.hebrewseniorlife.org, follow us on Twitter @H_SeniorLife, like us on Facebook, or read our blog.

Revere, Mass. – Today 270 residents and staff of the Jack Satter House in Revere received the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at an on-site clinic in collaboration with CVS Health. Nearly 10 months after the City of Revere and Hebrew SeniorLife first announced aggressive actions to prevent further spread of the virus at Jack Satter House, Mayor Brian Arrigo and Hebrew SeniorLife President and CEO Lou Woolf came together to reflect on the strength of the public-private partnership developed to safeguard the health and well-being of residents. 

Between March 24 and March 26, 2020, the Revere Board of Health was notified by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health of seven positive cases of COVID-19 at the Jack Satter House on Revere Beach Boulevard. On March 26, the Board of Health issued a directive requiring all Jack Satter House residents to quarantine in their individual apartments and issued additional guidance to all senior facilities in the City of Revere. For seven weeks, residents were not allowed access to common spaces and if they chose to leave the building, were not permitted to return until after the quarantine was lifted. These cases also marked the start of the City of Revere's contact tracing operation.
 
“In the early days of the pandemic, we had to make some very difficult and painful decisions to protect our most vulnerable residents, and so it’s a special day to be able to join the Jack Satter community as they receive their vaccinations and look forward to brighter days ahead,” Mayor Arrigo said. “For the past 10 months, we have worked closely with Hebrew SeniorLife on behalf of residents and I want to thank them for all their efforts to support resident health and well-being. The residents of Jack Satter House were among the earliest and most significantly impacted by COVID-9 public health measures, and I’ll never be able to fully express my gratitude to them – for doing their part to protect themselves and our community. I also want to again offer my deepest condolences to the families, friends, and neighbors of those lost to the virus this past year.” 

Lou Woolf, President and CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, said, “It has been a long journey battling COVID-19 but through it all, we have had a strong partnership with the City of Revere to help keep Jack Satter House residents as safe as possible. With the advent of vaccines, there is new hope and a spirit of positivity, especially with Satter House residents who were among the earliest to be affected by the virus in Massachusetts. Vaccinations are critical next steps in our ongoing efforts in addressing COVID-19 for our residents, patients, and employees, and with today’s clinic, Satter House residents continue on their way.” 

Throughout the pandemic, Jack Satter House management and Revere Board of Health nurses have maintained regular contact to identify and isolate positive COVID-19 cases and discuss evolving best practices in quarantine and testing follow-up. Jack Satter House is implementing innovative testing solutions to protect residents and staff, including rapid antigen tests for surveillance testing of employees and pooled testing for residents. Staff and residents have also been encouraged to take advantage of nearby testing opportunities, including the Project Beacon testing site at Suffolk Downs, the Stop the Spread site at Revere High School, and the resident-only testing site at the Revere Senior Center.  

The City of Revere’s Office of Elder Affairs has worked collaboratively with Jack Satter House to support residents in lieu of in-person programming and social events, including delivery of holiday meals from local restaurants, holiday cookies, well-wish cards and craft kits, and established the RevereTV "Senior FYI" program that invited Jack Satter House residents to share their stories and experiences from quarantine. The City also providing each resident with a PPE kit, and provides ongoing support to residents in need of transportation, food delivery, and PPE. 

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching, and redefining the possibilities of aging. Based in Boston, the nonprofit organization has provided communities and health care for seniors, research into aging, and education for geriatric care providers since 1903. Hebrew SeniorLife’s Jack Satter House is a HUD-subsidized supportive housing community on the ocean in Revere, Mass. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit https://www.hebrewseniorlife.org or follow us on our blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Residents at NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham, MA, and Orchard Cove in Canton, MA, two Hebrew SeniorLife living communities, have funded and awarded nearly $170,000 in educational scholarships to 35 staff members this year. Hebrew SeniorLife, a nonprofit affiliate of Harvard Medical School and recognized among Boston’s Top Places to Work, remains New England’s largest nonprofit provider of senior health care and living communities.

NewBridge and Orchard Cove residents established separate scholarship committees to help staff at each community continue their education. Each committee raises funds and reviews applications from eligible employees to support their educational aspirations.

This year, the NewBridge Scholarship Committee awarded scholarships to 23 employees, and the Orchard Cove Scholarship Committee awarded scholarships to 12 employees. In each community, scholarship recipients work in many different job roles and divisions, including culinary, fitness, security, and nursing.

More than 15 of this year’s recipients received scholarships in prior years. Boston resident Carol Martinez, a culinary server at NewBridge, has received the scholarship three times and spoke at an awards ceremony held earlier in the month. Entering her junior year at Worcester State University, Martinez is studying psychology and special education and previously volunteered in an inclusion classroom. “Ever since I was able to talk, I wanted to help people. I want the feeling that I am making a difference in people’s lives. I’m focused on my studies and personal growth. I am eager to learn, grow, and contribute to my education,” she said.

The scholarships will help these employees pursue their education in a range of majors at more than 25 colleges and universities, including Babson College, Bridgewater State University, Brown University, Bryant University, Cambridge School for Culinary Arts, Dean College, Emerson College, Fitchburg State University, Franklin Pierce University, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Indiana University, Mass Bay Community College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Massasoit Community College, Northeastern University, Quincy College, Salem State University, Southern New Hampshire University, St. John’s University, University of Massachusetts, University of Vermont, Westfield State University, Wheaton College, and Worcester State University.

The recipients live in a dozen cities and towns and include multiple residents of Boston, Brockton, Dedham, Mattapan, and Stoughton.

According to NewBridge on the Charles Scholarship Steering Committee Chair Peggy Wolf, “Education doesn’t stop in one year. To be able to offer this commitment to allow an individual to go out and get an education and come back is an ongoing effort. This is an opportunity for us as a resident community to do something for NewBridge’s hourly-paid employees. This is resident-developed and supported and has become part of the fabric of NewBridge. It has always been supported by leadership, including NewBridge’s Independent Living Executive Director Matt Hollingshead and Assisted Living Executive Director Rhonda Glyman. It is the most incredible gift and such fun to be a part of.”

The Orchard Cove Scholarship Fund was founded in 2006 by residents who had been educators to help staffers attain their own educational goals. “Today’s residents are just as committed to providing scholarships to as many applicants as possible every year. We view education as the stepping stone to a brighter future for the staff, some of whom continue to work in the community after they graduate while others move on to pursue other opportunities,” said Terry Levinson, chair of the Orchard Cove Scholarship Committee. “The Orchard Cove community is like a family, and awarding scholarships to our staff is like helping your own family; in that regard, we’re very happy to see that again this year, we have a mother and daughter receiving scholarships, and a brother and sister too. For those reasons, awards night is the highlight of Orchard Cove’s calendar.”

Scholarship recipients and Quincy residents Sophie and Sulfide Saint Marc are mother and daughter. Sophie works in culinary arts and attends UMass Boston, while Sulfide works in nursing and attends the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. Brockton residents and siblings Joshley and Jamisha Pierre both work in culinary arts and attend Massasoit Community College.

Since Orchard Cove residents established its program in 2006, they have contributed more than $580,000 in academic scholarships to more than 400 employees. The NewBridge Scholarship Committee has distributed more than $500,000 to 100 recipients in the five years since the committee was formed. In addition, Hebrew SeniorLife has established tuition discount agreements with Drexel University, Quinnipiac University, Regent University, Regis College, the University of Cincinnati, and other higher education institutions to offer a broader range of learning opportunities for all employees.

Learn more about careers at Hebrew SeniorLife. 

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching, and redefining the possibilities of aging. Hebrew SeniorLife cares for more than 4,500 older adults a day across campuses throughout Greater Boston. Locations include: Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-Boston and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-NewBridge in Dedham; NewBridge on the Charles, Dedham; Orchard Cove, Canton; Simon C. Fireman Community, Randolph; Center Communities of Brookline, Brookline; Jack Satter House, Revere; and Leyland Community, Dorchester. Founded in 1903, Hebrew SeniorLife also conducts influential research into aging at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, which has a portfolio of more than $98 million, making it one of the largest gerontological research facilities in the U.S. in a clinical setting. It also trains more than 500 geriatric care providers each year. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, follow us on our blog, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn.