In a duplex basement on Bourret Street near Westbury Avenue, Leib Reuven Feldman sat working, as he has for three decades, in the care home that has meant so much to him and his family.
In June, Feldman, 63, always reluctant to receive compliments or recognition, accepted the highest award bestowed by Ami Québec, a support group for families coping with mental illness. He was recognized for his “exemplary service” in the field.
“Your tireless work with some of the most marginalized members of our community has provided many of these individuals not only with a home, but also with the caring and respectful environment that is so critical in recovery,” Ami Québec president Annie Young wrote to Feldman. “Your devotion to this population for so many years is a reflection of and testimony to your extraordinary commitment.”
Yet for Feldman, the award, while appreciated, is not the real or important story. At the Feldman Home, as it is known, the important story is about the 20 or so residents of the duplex. Feldman, three of his eight children and his longtime devoted staff spend almost every waking moment helping these people to become more functioning human beings.
Some of the residents have severely debilitating psychiatric or psychological issues and are dealing with a profound sense of isolation. Others have serious developmental issues.
But, Feldman said in an interview, it’s all about having the home’s residents take tiny, incremental steps that, little by little, day-by-day help them to make progress through a level of professional care-giving that builds a relationship based on genuine compassion, trust and engagement.
“The relationship you need to build can take six months to a year,” Feldman said. “It is I who has always learned from them. It is they who teach me. These are the most marginalized members of our society. We try to make them more viable.
“It’s a whole support system,” Feldman noted, with progress sometimes measured by being able to leave a room or the home, to be in the world, go to the park. In less serious cases, it’s about being able to move out on your own, to find a job. It’s always about being able to become more autonomous.
“The idea is for them to leave institutions and help them integrate into the community,” Feldman said. “We push them, encourage them, to get them as integrated as they can.”
It’s not a life Feldman would have predicted for himself, an observant and non-judgmental Jew who comes across as something of a bohemian in a yarmulke. He once worked as a meat salter at Glatt’s Kosher Meat Products, but in 1982, he opened the home, which once also served as a foster home for seniors, out of a desire, a need, “to be connected with people, to be involved in others’ lives,” he said.
“I’ve always considered it a gift to be able to do this, but also a huge responsibility.”
While Feldman’s home has to comply with specific provincial regulatory requirements, it is also run as a private family business and is constantly on the lookout for new sources of financial support, even though it has never refused to take in a new resident based on ability to pay. Over the years, the home has also developed a well-maintained computerized database that hums along in the duplex’s basement.
Feldman’s ambitious plans, besides a website, include a housing initiative – “entrepreneurial venues” for individuals with serious psychiatric issues – and specialized daycare centres for people with developmental disorders.
“There are many projects being discussed. We’re in active dialogue with organizations,” Feldman said. “We hope it will happen.”
