Police suspect that Shoshanah Bernbach, an elderly Jewish woman living in Holon, was murdered by her Moldavian caretaker on Saturday morning. The case has raised questions over the supervision of foreign caretakers, who in recent years have provided an increasing percent of the care for elderly Israelis.
Miriam Bar-Giora, the head of the Welfare Department’s Elderly Services division, explained that the companies who bring foreign workers to Israel to provide private care are expected to check on the workers and their patients four times a year. In addition, a social worker should visit the patient twice a year. An expert from Ben Gurion University, Dr. Ester Yakovich, was quoted in Yediot Acharonot as saying that companies often fail to run background checks on foreign employees, and that many families who hire a foreign worker to assist an elderly parent do not know if the worker has an appropriate background or not. Most of the workers are dedicated and provide good care, Yakovich added.