About residents - Caring Business

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When she received a coveted care industry lifetime achievement award and an OBE in quick succession last year, Judith Hassan was absolutely astounded.

Ms Hassan – who is director of services for Holocaust survivors and refugees for the charity Jewish Care – says: 'The nice thing about having an OBE and a lifetime achievement award is that it gives you an impetus – I'm still on a high.’

She believes that subconsciously she is carrying on the work of her German mother and English father who took in Jewish refugees and provided a home for many of them – some of whom aged in their 70s still reminisce about her mother's cooking.

That influence has shaped the career of woman who is remarkable indeed - as someone who has taken decades to work with, listen to, learn from and help survivors of some of the worst atrocities in human history.

As a psychology and sociology graduate looking to enter industry, her career could have been very different if her mother had not spotted an advertisement for social workers in the Jewish Chronicle nearly 40 years ago. Starting in social work in the East End, she drifted subconsciously towards north-west London.

As a team leader in the early 1980s she came to realise that there were people coming forward whose anxiety exceeded their demands on the service and identified that they were refugees from Germany and Austria.

She says: 'When I verbalised this, there was relief that the connection had been made. I heard the unspoken messages and began to realise that nobody came forward who had been in the death camps, in hiding, or partisans and I began to wonder why. Then a death camp survivor came forward to say she wanted to set up a group – saying that she didn't want therapy, or social work – so that's what I did.'

The group started with about six people meeting in their homes, but it soon outgrew that and they needed somewhere to meet. As director of services for Holocaust survivors and refugees for Jewish Care, Ms Hassan was able to argue for the creation of a Holocaust Survivors Centre – and turn it into a reality.

The centre is the only facility of its kind designed specifically for Holocaust survivors in the UK. It provides a social and therapeutic outlet for many people through a variety of activities including T'ai Chi, Israeli dancing, creative writing and art. Surprisingly perhaps, the art produced by survivors, except a few individuals, does not reflect on the horror they have been through.

'The [Kosher] kitchen is open every day. People who have gone through starvation relate to food in a very different way. We act as an antidote to bad memories, so the food has to be accessible to people who have queued for food in death camps. The soup is always thick to contrast with what they called soup in the death camps – which was a starvation ration.

'Everything here is set up to lift people. The colours – people get to choose how the place looks – they're involved at every level. For people who have been under a totalitarian regime – they are not just here to receive what they are given – they now get to influence. We don't want them to feel like victims again.'

A hugely important part of that influence is an elected advisory committee of survivors who meet to regularly look at the policy and development of the centre.

The Holocaust Survivors' Centre is attached to the Shalvata Therapy Centre, which opened earlier as a drop-in mental health centre. Shalvata (Hebrew for 'peace of mind) offers practical and emotional therapeutic support to those who survived the Nazi Holocaust.

The specialist workers at Shalvata have unique knowledge about war trauma from years of working with Holocaust survivors. Referrals come from Jewish Care, health and social services and other organisations or people can refer themselves directly.

Ms Hassan says: 'We found that people who wanted to speak about their experience were misdiagnosed so they had become silent. As they get older the memories return and they want a way to express them. Ageing can be a trigger to traumatic memories that they would never have previously dealt with.'

Of the people who were children in the Holocaust, some are still in the late 60s and have a lot of energy, but the centre is now seeing a lot of frailty and is shifting from therapy towards social work.

Ms Hassan says: 'We have to look at end of life care especially the spiritual side that's important – without ramming religion down people's throats. Towards the end of life people return to their roots. Many questioned their faith because of the Holocaust but many return to faith towards the end.

'My aim at this stage is to make sure for people who have lost so much, that the last part of their life is as comfortable as possible and that they should have peace of mind so they can let go of life. Part of that is their legacy.'

In the early days of her work with Holocaust survivors and their children she faced enormous difficulties – and some of those problems remain in part today.

Ms Hassan says: 'Not being a survivor myself, many of them felt the Jewish community could have done more to help them when they needed it so – so I was tarred with the same brush. They were very hesitant and wondered why I was getting involved. For people who went through the Holocaust it was that they lost trust in other people. If you weren't a survivor why would you want help? They were fearful of my professional background – would I be interpreting them or labelling them as mad?

'I found you just needed to listen and observe what they thought helped them. What helped them was being together and having a sense of identity and how they strengthened each other without professional intervention.

'In my work at Shalvata I had to change the traditional ways of working. There had to be a much more informal approach that would make people feel comfortable. Boundaries were often looser – they often asked me about my background. Changing that therapeutic relationship where they were teaching me helped establish a rapport. It wasn't easy.'

But after 38 years in the profession – and with a lifetime achievement award under her belt – she is not ready to give up any time soon.

In the short-term there is an extra care scheme being planned to house Holocaust survivors. She says: 'I want to see that through because the idea started here,' and adds that there are many architectural issues to be sorted out. These include ensuring plenty of light as an antithesis to people's experience of incarceration and sensitivity around washing facilities because of the association of showers with mass murder in the death camps.

And then there is still the 'ordinary' work of the centre. Sitting in her office, she sums up just how emotional that 'day job' is: 'This room – you would drown with the tears. When people start to speak, it is overwhelming for them and for me. I still don’t know how they have come out of it so positively but I've learnt from them how people can live with the traumatic memories.'

Judith Hassan's guide to helping people who have endured war trauma titled A House Next Door To Trauma, published by Jessica Kingsley, priced £19.95.

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Providers nationwide are endorsing our National Care Homes Week, find out more about what’s happening in your area here.

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Care home managers and workers can give themselves a big pat on the back because, despite the doom and gloom carried in the national media about this sector, it’s doing a great job according to the people who matter the most – the residents. Amena Saleem has been analysing the responses to our residents’ survey and finds most are happy with their home.