It is five years after the tragically fateful day that changed Ron Gold’s life forever. During the Thanksgiving weekend of 2011, Gold and his neighbor Dr. Zachary Orden, both of Hillsdale, New Jersey, were struck by an out-of-control SUV on Saddle River Road where they had ridden their bikes numerous times before. The female driver of the SUV had dozed off at the wheel and hit the two bikers. Orden was hit first and went flying. Next, Gold was hit head on. Orden sustained a shattered pelvis and damage to his left hand. After a great deal of therapy and rehabilitation, he was fortunate enough to return to his career in dentistry. Gold was not so fortunate. He lay in a coma in Hackensack Hospital for three weeks, in intensive care for two months and at Kessler Rehabilitation for five months. His injuries to the spinal cord were irreversible and he was told by his doctors that he would never walk again. How do you receive such a proclamation of doom? According to Gold, “The doctors had to come in and repeat their prognosis several times before I was willing to accept it.”
Gold’s life up to that tragic event had been “blessed.” A native of West Orange, New Jersey, Gold came from a Zionist home, attended the Solomon Schechter School of Union County, was active in Young Judea and spent his gap year in Israel under the auspices of the Zionist Youth movement. It was during that year that he met the “love of his life,” his wife Betsy from Douglaston, Queens. Together they built a Jewish home with three daughters who, like their father, attended Solomon Schechter and either spent and will spend their gap years on Young Judea programs. The Golds belong to Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley, where Gold served on the board, and the Washington township YJCC. Ms. Gold is a journalist and spent many years as business editor of the Record of Hackensack.
At the University of Pennsylvania, Gold had earned a double major in business and Asian Studies. He was able to combine his math skills, finance background and interest in history and geopolitics into a career on Wall Street working for Lehman Brothers and later at Barclay’s Bank. His Asian market expertise sent him out of the country often on business trips abroad. Life was good,; until that fateful day.
Emotionally, Gold struggled to make peace with his new reality. At the same time, he was coping with the harsh reality that after eight weeks, insurance stops covering home care and the family would be on its own.
The Golds’ considerations were complicated. “I could continue with the agency that was providing us care, but pay it out of my own pocket. The cost would be $25 per hour with a minimum of four hours per day. The caregiver would receive only $10-11 of that fee. As we realized that I would need this care indefinitely, the numbers were becoming unwieldy. Should we hire a caregiver on a private basis, avoiding the agency altogether?”
The Golds began asking around and contacting other families that had used caregivers. The “word of mouth” recommendation did not sit well with them, even from friendly websites. “Every individual needs a specific set of skills from a caregiver. There is no “one size fits all” in caregiving. My elderly father needed one type of caregiver. I need another.”
These considerations started the Golds on their enterprise to provide non-agency, out-of-pocket caregivers to clients and their families that would meet the specific needs of the situation and provide optimum care at reduced costs.
Their organization, LeanOnWe, was created to provide an exchange where people in need of care and caregivers are matched. It is a business but also a passion. Gold sees LeanOnWe as the implementation of the mantra he adopted from his favorite all-time movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” when one character turns to another and admonishes him, “You can get busy living or get busy dying.” Gold chose the former.
What makes LeanOnWe an attractive alternative to other caregiver organizations? According to Gold, “We provide personal care in an impersonal world.”
Logging on to www.LeanOnWe.com opens up a whole new world of caregiving to the consumer and family. The site informs the inquirer as to the process by which the caregivers are located, how they are required to have proper licensure and certification in the U.S. and statewide. The vetting process requires FBI fingerprinting and not simply an internet background check. A requirement is that the caregiver have at least three years experience in the field, with most caregivers having a minimum of six to nine years. Serious letters of recommendation are required and verified as well. After the family provides the service coordinators, led by Betsy Gold, with the specific skills they are seeking, the family is sent six short videos of carefully matched caregivers for the family to review and discuss. When they decide upon the two most suitable, those two caregivers are invited to visit the home of the client and interview personally with the individual and the family. A selection is made and, in most cases, “it is a fit.” In cases that do not work out, an immediate replacement is provided through the same process.
Serving New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, LeanOnWe, which launched a mere 15 months ago, has provided over 200 caregivers to families, has vetted and registered over 400 caregivers, and has been approached by over 2000 more as potential caregivers.
To families in the community in need of capable, cost-effective and compassionate caregivers, the Golds comment, “It takes a team: So Lean On We!”
By Pearl Markovitz
