Karen Faith LLC celebrates West Bloomfield ribbon cutting.
Jewish social worker Karen Faith Gordon spent many years supporting Metro Detroit’s older adult population before launching her own endeavor, Karen Faith LLC, which celebrated its ribbon cutting for its West Bloomfield location June 21.
With a long career in geriatrics, Gordon plans to use the space on 14 Mile and Middlebelt Road to provide mental health care for older adults, their families and their caregivers. There’s also an adjacent space she has, Elements, that’s used for group activities and community-building.
Gordon, a University of Michigan master’s of social work graduate, began her early career working at Jewish Federation Apartments, a senior living community.
“I was so blessed to have my own grandparents still alive well into my adulthood,” she recalls. “I would walk into the Jewish Federation Apartments, and it was like I had 300 more grandparents. It felt like home.”
Gordon, a longtime Jewish Senior Life employee, was also instrumental in helping older Soviet Jewish immigrants in the 1990s, many of whom sought out housing at Teitel Apartments in Oak Park.
She called working with Metro Detroit’s older Jewish population a “wonderful” experience.
“I’ve always loved to be among the older adult population,” Gordon, 55, of West Bloomfield, explains. Even as a child, Gordon’s family often joked that she was an “older soul.”
It was a mindset that stuck. “If we’re walking around the planet today, we’re becoming older by the minute,” Gordon explains. “Every single one of us. No one is exempt.”
Caring for Isolated Older Adults
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the need for mental health care for older adults became of the utmost importance, especially for older adults who were isolated, Gordon began planting the seed for Karen Faith LLC.
At the time, she was driving to see clients for home visits. “I went out on my own, and I had no office,” Gordon recalls. “People were calling me from all over, and I became busy pretty quickly.”
The pandemic only increased the need for services. “I had so many calls from people who live out of town who didn’t know when they would see their parents again,” she says. “Family members felt relieved that someone could go see their parents in their home and report back to them.”
Karen Faith Gordon cut the ribbon on her West Bloomfield business June 21. (Photo by Melissa Douglas)
Working as a conduit between families and older adults, Gordon realized the business wasn’t only an idea, but necessary and needed in the Metro Detroit community and beyond.
Recent data shows that at least one in four older adults experiences a mental disorder such as depression, anxiety or dementia. This number is expected to double by 2030 as the current population continues to age.
That’s why Gordon chose to offer both telehealth and onsite mental health care services to make care more accessible. “I started to realize the value of people who wanted to come to an office to talk and have that privacy,” she says of deciding to operate a physical location.
Supporting the Aging Journey
Gordon, a parent of four, works with all aspects of the aging journey.
People come to her for support with retirement, a diagnosis of a family member or to be a mediator for what can often be difficult family discussions about older adult care needs.
“Retirement is no small deal,” she says as an example. “I get people who call me saying, ‘This isn’t what I expected, and my life doesn’t look like I thought it was going to look.’
“Someone might call who has been diagnosed with dementia or some other disease that is going to be chronic and progressive and affect their life in ways that are yet unknown,” Gordon adds.
The COVID-19 pandemic may be on its way out, but mental health care needs for older adults only continue to grow. Gordon hopes her business can support the local community with all of their aging needs both now and into the future.
Adding the adjacent space of Elements, named after “approaching all elements of life every single day,” was also critical to the business plan.
“I want the space to become a community,” Gordon says of Karen Faith LLC and Elements. “We all have our own journey, and this space is meant to be a container for that.”
As for what drives her, the purpose is simple.
“I’m about wellbeing,” Gordon explains. “I’m about people maximizing and capitalizing on all the goodness in their life, and when goodness is less accessible because there are challenges going on, I want to be a safe space for people to show up.”
