The person-centered care movement lost a great leader and visionary in December 2015, when Rob Mayer passed away. Rob, as founder and president of the Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation, fully embraced that movement and did much to deepen its mission in the 21st century.
In the beginning, The Rothschild Foundation enhanced older adults’ access to cultural institutions in Chicago by inviting artists into care communities. Over the course of a decade, the foundation partnered with 33 arts organizations delivering 1,000 visits a year.
Around 2002, when Rob heard about the Pioneer Network (an advocate organization for person-centered care), he called to say he’d like the foundation to offer financial support. At first, Pioneer leaders didn’t believe him—after all, who just calls you up and offers money? But they quickly learned what a valuable resource Rob was, and not just financially.
With Rob at the helm, the Rothschild Foundation also partnered with Ideas Institute on Creating Home in the Community, a project that enabled communities going through a deep culture change to get additional resources to support that effort.
However, Rob wanted to push the Rothschild Foundation’s efforts further and sought out more impactful opportunities to fundamentally improve the quality of life for elders. In partnering with Pioneer Network and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the Creating Home in the Nursing Home symposium in 2008, he finally began to see how he and the foundation could support change at the scale he was looking for.
Out of this event came the first of eight Rothschild Regulatory Task Forces, which have addressed issues such as building and fire safety codes, dining standards, low vision, acoustics, accessibility and safety guidelines, and more.
Rob always asked the tough questions, usually didn’t settle for the first answer, and was ready to do the hard work. He also recognized that accomplishing his goals would be a long journey, with several paths to be traveled with many companions. But he understood that the more people we can get on the path, the further we can go. So Rob worked tirelessly to bring the best and the brightest together and join disparate groups who hadn’t traditionally been at the same table together, all for the greater good.
Each of the Rothschild Regulatory Task Forces will carry on his work, bringing even more people onto the path of recognizing the importance of person-centered care. Rob ensured that the work of the foundation will carry on and will continue to be a driving force for the movement.
Margaret Calkins, PhD, EDAC, is board chair of Ideas Institute and the Elliot Professor of Health Care Design at Kent State University. She can be reached at [email protected].
