Highlands House

Cape Jewish Aged Home

234 Upper Buitenkant Street | Cape Town | 8001

Contact: Mathilde Tomson-Myburgh

Phone: 021-461-1100

Website: highlandshouse.co.za

Instagram: @highlandshousecpt

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Mission

Highlands House is home to the elderly parents, siblings, relatives and friends of many in Cape Town’s Jewish Community. Residents aged 60 – 100+ are cared for according to their emotional, physical, spiritual, and social needs.

Ask anyone who has ever visited Highlands House, and they will tell you we are so much more than just a facility for the elderly — we are a Home. — Delia Kaplan, Deputy Director

Program of Services

Highlands House offers:

Personalized Care: Dedicated unit managers work with an expert interdisciplinary team to individualize detailed care plans for each resident, identifying key needs.
Quality of Life: The Occupational Therapy team has input on every aspect of a resident's life, guided by insights from continued interRAI Assessments and SQLI participation.
Aging in Health: The campus boasts a 24-hour nurse-run health center that attends to routine and emergency healthcare needs, with oversight from a team of contracted private GPs.
Fostering connection by:
Honoring Jewish Heritage: All major Jewish Holidays are celebrated with special activities and rituals, such as tree planting, shiurs, and Yom Tov celebrations. They also offer an exclusive on-site Shul and permanent Sukkah.
Keeping Things Kosher: Highlands House is Kosher under Beth Din and offers 3 meals daily to all residents and 2 meals daily to staff, including tea-time and function catering. Tackling New Activities Together: Our Lifestyle Centre facilitates various daily activities, creating a warm and inviting environment where residents socialize, explore, and engage.
Meeting Over Books or Coffee: The on-site coffee shop and gardens overlooking Table Mountain and volunteer-run library offer even more ways to connect and be together.

"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home" ~ Author Unknown

Our History

Highlands House, an aged care facility, situated at the base of Table Mountain in Vredehoek Cape Town, is dedicated to serving the Jewish aged community. They have provided exceptional care and services in various forms since 1916, making them 108 years old, and one of the oldest organizations in the South African Jewish community.

Since 2020 Highlands House has been part of the Seniors Quality Leap Initiative (SQLI). They benchmark their services against 13 leading North American aged care facilities using the interRAI Minimum Data set. These insights help them to continually innovate and improve.

Highlands House is excited to announce that construction of the new Memory Care Unit has begun. "It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home." – Author Unknown

Even in an aged care facility, you can effect change and make a contribution to society. "It is in your hands to make a better world for all who live in it." —Nelson Mandela. In celebration of Mandela Day 2022, Highlands House residents got together to do their #67minutes of community work by packaging their own and each other’s hand-knit clothing items, toys and handcrafted beadwork to be distributed to other organizations as goodwill donations.

Highlands House Art Exhibition – remarkable what the residents created during the pandemic.

Highlands House celebrates it all - the Oscars, Pesach, and lighting of Yahrtzeit candles in observance of Yom HaShoah

"Isn’t she lovely, isn’t she wonderful, isn’t she precious, she’s my mom." For Mother's Day the residents got dressed up, shared funny stories about their children growing up, had a good laugh, and enjoyed a delicious tea.