Swampscott couple contributes $1M to Peabody nursing home

The Chelsea Jewish Foundation and Brudnick Insurance company grew up and flourished together in Chelsea. Now the relationship will continue into old age, as Swampscott couple Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick have given $1 million to kick off a capital campaign for the foundation’s new nursing facility in Peabody.The Chelsea Jewish Foundation and the former Aviv Centers for Living announced in December that they were merging and that the Chelsea nonprofit would be taking over the former Aviv Skilled Nursing Facility and Jewish Rehabilitation Center of the North Shore in Peabody. The merger came about two years after Aviv closed its Swampscott facility on Paradise Road to consolidate operations at its Peabody campus with the addition of a new $35 million health center.Brudnick said his family has a long affiliation with the Chelsea Jewish Foundation going back to his roots there. His great-grandmother immigrated to the city from Russia and Brudnick grew up in the city. It was also where he started his business, Brudnick Insurance, after high school. Brudnick said he became friendly with Barry Berman, now chief executive officer of the Chelsea Jewish Foundation, when Berman was running his first nursing home in the city. Susan Brudnick volunteered and then was activities director at the facility, and two of the couples’ children volunteered at the home.”We have a long affinity for helping the elderly and being involved with Barry’s facilities,” Brudnick said. “The level of care, the dedication of staff; it’s just incredible to see.”That involvement continues with the Brudnicks’ gift.”We are thrilled and extremely grateful to Jeff and Susan Brudnick for this enormously generous gift,” Berman said in a statement.Brudnick said he was glad to help. He described the Chelsea facility as “unbelievable” with a green facility, specialized facilities for those with multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and individual houses for groups of residents.Meanwhile, Brudnick said that philanthropists have to step up to fill the gap between government and private funding of healthcare. With baby boomers entering their golden years, eldercare is expected to be in even higher demand.”A lot of healthcare organizations are struggling because they get the vast amount of revenue from government sources, and it’s getting cut,” Brudnick said. “We haven’t had a new nursing home built in Massachusetts in several years…licenses have been turned in – and we’ve had several nursing homes close. It becomes a challenge to find places for residents.”And while he and his wife will have their names over the facility door, they don’t have beds.”No, I don’t have a bed reserved for me,” Brudnick said, laughing. “But we made that joke well before we became involved with the former Aviv facility.”But there have been beds for his mother and grandmother, and Brudnick fondly remembers the care they received.”It all comes full circle,” Brudnick said.