ABOUT

The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation was founded to honor the memory and further the pioneering life work of Robert Nathan Mayer, PhD.

The Foundation is devoted to improving the experience and quality of life of those older Americans who are living in residential long-term care settings.

BACKGROUND

The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation, with its funding Foundation, The Hulda B. & Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation, is the only philanthropic organization in the United States solely dedicated to promoting person-centered care in long-term care residential communities serving older adults and their families. The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation was founded to honor the memory and further the pioneering work of Robert Nathan Mayer, PhD. The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation is devoted to improving the experience and quality of life for those older adults living in residential care settings across the country. The Foundation is committed to serving as an active, ongoing partner during the development and implementation of the Designation of Excellence.

From the founder

“Our healthcare delivery system, as it relates to how we treat those receiving care, is at a crossroads. There is a movement, now thirty years old, which at its core seeks to de-institutionalize our healthcare delivery system and to recognize that the person receiving care should be at the center of all that we do; that we should be treating the whole person; not a disease; not a set of symptoms; not a case; not a room number. Today, most long-term care communities are very carefully organized and designed for the efficiency of the clinical staff; productivity of the administrative personnel; a deficiency-free response to regulations; the maximum reimbursement from third party payers; and the cost-effective and value-engineered design of the built environment. Virtually forgotten in this complex of competing priorities, demands and financial constraints are the very people the system should be designed to support: the resident and their family.”

“The adoption of a single, unified set of person-centered characteristics which would be common to all has to date not been possible for a field still in its infancy. With no collective understanding as to what constitutes person-centered care or even common nomenclature, any care community can (and increasingly does) proudly proclaim that they are person-centered practitioners. Sadly, it doesn’t take very many communities who have merely adopted person-centered window-dressing to undermine the legitimacy of those who have worked hard and long to fully integrate these values and are really making a difference in the quality of life of their residents. Without a credible and widely recognized third-party designation, how is any consumer of long-term care services to distinguish one from the other?” 

 

“Extensive marketing research shows that today’s consumers demand convenient, hassle-free, responsive service. They also value choice, access, and simplicity. As these same dimensions are characteristics of true person-centered care, we believe that there is a pent-up demand for this approach, were it understood to be available.”

— Robert Nathan Mayer, PhD
excerpt from Culture Change in Elder Care

Mayer RN….: “Successful Philanthropy Requires Culture Change”. In Culture Change in Elder Care (Audrey S. Weiner and Judah L. Ronch, editors), Health Professionals Press, Baltimore, Maryland, ISBN 978-1-932529-86-2, pp. 321-353, 2013.

Leadership

Paul Nebenzahl
Executive Director

Paul Nebenzahl was named Executive Director of The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation in November of 2019, from Interim Executive Director, a role he held from January 2018. Nebenzahl has served the Foundation and the Hulda B. & Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation as consultant and staff since 1997 on a wide range of initiatives. Nebenzahl’s career as a development leader at such Chicago stalwarts as Field Museum, Lincoln Park Zoo and WTTW/Channel 11 spanned thirty years. His consultancy in the longevity market has included service to Pioneer Network, The Beryl Institute, Caring Across Generations, Benefits Data Trust, Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), McGill University College of Medicine, the Patient Experience Institute and Amigour (senior housing for holocaust survivors in Israel) as well as active participation and committee and presentation assignments at Grantmakers In Aging, the American Society on Aging and the Gerontological Society of America.

Board OF DIRECTORS

Debra E Weese-Mayer, MD
President

Jaimie A Mayer, MFA
Director

Jennifer R Mayer, VMD
Director