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The service called "Going Home", has been instituted in three medical centers: Hadassah Ein Kerem, Shaarei Zedek and Sheba-Tel Hashomer. It is designed for childless patients having difficulty coping with the new physical limitations that prevent them from functioning in their daily life. Yad Sarah, through its years of contact with housebound patients, found a lack of communication between the various providers of services for the ill and realized this called for a party to coordinate between the health care providers and welfare providers to enable the patients to receive optimum care.

To effect the efficiency of the new service, Yad Sarah gathered representatives from all the national health and welfare providers (hospitals, the Ministry of Health, the health funds, the welfare offices, the National Insurance Institute, and a number of non-profit organizations in addition to Yad Sarah) around one table. In a joint effort they laid out the plans for assisting patients through the Yad Sarah volunteers. Now it was necessary to begin the complex gathering of all the information to serve the patients—both from institutional sources as well as volunteer organizations.

The complexity only increased when it came to recruiting the volunteers. Yad Sarah had to be certain these volunteers were well acquainted with all the information and tools to help the patients to whom they were assigned. Hours of meetings and instruction were invested in this effort. The handpicked volunteers, who provide a one-on-one service with each patient, also had to be suitable to the task, sensitive to the needs of their patients and able to acquire the patients' confidence at such a difficult time of crisis.

Current volunteers recount a number of services they have provided to help their patients overcome bureaucratic hurdles and receive the care coming to them—completing complicated forms, arranging special bank privileges, seeing that nurses and doctors visit the patients at home for check-ups and injections, arranging meals on wheels, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, the bond formed between the patients and their caring volunteers lasts well beyond the period of recuperation. When someone cares enough to see you through a crisis, you don't easily forget it. There are many grateful patients who now count these Yad Sarah volunteers among their closest of friends.

Yad Sarah hopes to expand this service to other hospitals in the country and is looking for more volunteers to join the force of this extremely important and successful endeavor. If you are interested in helping someone in "Going Home", please call +972-2-6444809 or email yonite@yadsarah.org.il .