Episode #94: When She Says "I Want to Go Home," She Doesn't Mean the Address with Judy Cohen, Deborah Rothenberg and Einat Sandler Leib
Judy Cohen opened PEAK College because she ran a care home first.
She watched PSWs arrive from other institutions — trained, credentialed, technically capable — and she knew she could do better. So she did. L'Chaim Retirement Home, a 30-bed dementia-specialized residence with a waiting list that stays long, became the proving ground for a school. Students from PEAK — and from other colleges — do their practicum at L'Chaim. What the staff observe goes straight back into the curriculum. The curriculum informs what happens in the home. It's a feedback loop that has been running, getting sharper, for over a decade.
In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, host Michael Sangster sits with Judy and two of her closest collaborators: Deborah Rothenberg, Director of Operations at L'Chaim and co-founder of Dementia Support, a curriculum program now being delivered to long-term care facilities across the sector; and Einat Sandler Leib, Managing Director of the Memory Loss Foundation and educational innovation consultant at PEAK College.
Together they cover 770 PSW graduates in a single year, a 20-hour AI safety workshop built specifically for PSWs entering home care, a Smart and Safe seminar reaching seniors in retirement homes and community centers across the GTA, and the Moments Café — a social program for people with memory loss and their care partners. And they share the insight that Deborah delivers quietly but clearly: you can teach a PSW to check every box on the list. But kindness, empathy, and appropriate speech? That, you can't buy.
What to expect
[00:04:30] — Two Sides of the Same Crisis
[00:06:00] — "I Can Do Better. I Must Do Better."
[00:07:00] — 2,500 Questions Inside a Closed AI
[00:08:30] — Five Agencies, One Room, Hired on the Spot
[00:11:30] — Smart and Safe: AI for Older Adults
[00:17:00] — "I Wanna Go Home" Doesn't Mean the Address
[00:18:00] — "Kindness. Empathy. This You Can't Buy."
[00:27:00] — The AI Policy Gap in Home Care
Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/ZexevIjwGPK