‘When someone is seriously ill, you don’t want to leave the hospital room’

NOMI KALTMANN speaks to the founders of Melbourne’s Beit Rafael charity, which provides crisis accommodation apartments near hospitals, a medical shuttle and a ‘Shabbas Box’

LEAH BALBIN REMEMBERS the fear she felt when her six-month baby Sam was unwell with bronchitis. He had struggled to breathe for a few days, and as her concern grew, she found herself with her husband and baby on the way to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital on a Friday in the hours before Shabbat to have him checked in emergency.

Unsure if she would have to stay near the children’s hospital over Shabbat with her family, she recalls that someone told them to call Beit Rafael.  Co-founder Shimon Allen picked up her husband’s call, reassuring him that the key to a fully-stocked apartment across the road from the hospital, where they could stay free of charge, was on its way to them.

“It was erev Shabbos. It was unbelievable, the apartment had everything you needed,” recalls Balbin.  

While thankfully the Balbins didn’t end up needing to stay at the apartment (the hospital monitored her son and his breathing eventually stabilised), and they were able to return home before Shabbat, Balbin was struck by the sheer kindness of Beit Rafael’s offer.

“I didn’t know these people. I was blown away. It felt like we were not alone. The apartment was fully stocked with food and bedding and if we had stayed there over Shabbos, we wouldn’t have needed anything,” she says.

Founded in 2012 by Melburnians Shimon and Adina Allen, Beit Rafael is a charity that provides crisis accommodation apartments near major Melbourne hospitals. These apartments are fully furnished, stocked with food and other necessities required for people to reside there while they have a hospitalised family member and need to be immediately at hand.

“About 10 years ago my wife Adina had an idea that we should open an apartment for families to reside in while their child was undergoing treatment at the Royal Children’s Hospital,” recalls Shimon Allen. 

“Adina found an apartment opposite the Royal Children’s hospital, right next to the pedestrian crossing and we established a self-contained apartment for families".

Beit Rafael apartments aim to give families a chance to have some respite from the intense pressure of a hospital environment and get their head around what’s actually going on with their child in the hospital.

“We thought this apartment would assist families. When an older person becomes unwell, we consider it part of life. When a child is unwell, it is traumatic for everyone. But, when children are unwell, it attacks the essence of an individual. So, we felt the Royal Children’s Hospital was the correct place to be,” he says.  

While originally Beit Rafael started off with just one apartment next to the Royal Children’s Hospital, today the charity manages a further three apartments next to Melbourne hospitals, including Cabrini Malvern, Monash Medical Centre and The Alfred. 

Since the charity opened, these apartments have been consistently busy, with the first guest arriving a mere two weeks after launching. While other motel-style accommodation near hospitals exists, the Beit Rafael accommodation provides something more: a real “home away from home”.

The apartments serve the wide cross-section of the Jewish community. “We assist people from Toorak to Carrum. If you want to talk about the spectrum of Melbourne Judaism, we have it covered,” reflects Allen. 

Most families require the accommodation for 24-36 hours, and if a person must remain in the apartment more than that initial period, the stay is generally five days.

On occasion, some families have resided in the apartments for weeks at a time and sometimes, tragically, even months for cases of extended illness, with the longest period being six months.

When asked why these families had chosen to stay in the apartments for months at a time when they could technically drive themselves to and from the hospital at any time, Shimon Allen’s answer is illuminating.

“Someone asking such a question has clearly not had a member of their family who is seriously ill. When someone is seriously ill, you cannot even breathe, you don’t even want to leave the hospital room. And you certainly don’t want to take a drive 45 minutes from the Royal Children’s Hospital back to Caulfield and then 45 minutes to go back there again,” he explains.

“When someone's health is in a precarious state, families cannot tear themselves away from their loved ones.”

However, the apartments were just the first step of Beit Rafael’s operations.  

The charity has continued to expand, adding its first medical shuttle in 2015 alongside a volunteer-led service that drives people to and from medical appointments and treatments across Melbourne. In 2016, a second shuttle that can accommodate wheelchairs was added to its fleet. Today it operates a total of four vehicles.

Also in 2016, Beit Rafael started the Shabbat Box program, a weekly gift pack delivered prior to Shabbat for people in hospital. The gift box contain grape-juice, challahs and other basic Shabbat necessities include electric candles. 

“The Shabbat Box was based on the idea of lifting the morale of people and let them know someone is thinking of them while they are in hospital,” says Allen. 

“We always thought that within the Jewish community, people are always being visited. However, we soon came to learn that there are certain people in hospital who don’t see people from week to week.”

Another initiative is the availability, on a loan basis, of healthcare equipment such as wheelchairs, knee walkers, shower chairs and commodes.

Today, between the apartments, the medical shuttle service, Shabbat Box program and healthcare equipment loans, Beit Rafael has more than 90 volunteers on hand each week to provide these services.

One of these volunteers is Mina Lederberger, who has been delivering Shabbat boxes each week for close to five years. “I wanted to do it specifically at Caulfield hospital, because it has an aged care residence, and it was really very hard to find people to go to Caulfield. My mother had been an in-patient there and I thought it was an important thing to do,” she reflects.

Lederberger notes the happiness and joy that her brief conversation brings to people when she delivers them a Shabbat Box, some of whom have not had a single other visitor that week.

In her words: “It makes you feel good to bring joy to people.”

She enjoys volunteering for Beit Rafael because she believes in the mission and the other volunteers are from all over the community and from all different walks of life. But she is a particularly grateful to Shimon and Adina Allen for their kindness and generosity.

“Adina and Shimon Allen are two of the most loving and giving people I know. I have known them since I moved to Australia. They have always done everything and anything they could in Gmilut Chassadim [acts of selfless kindness]. The world stands on three things. If you don’t have Chessed [kindness] the world can’t stand. They are the most amazing people. They are like angels.”

Photo: Melbourne couple with a ‘Shabbas Box’ from Beit Rafael (supplied)