Assisted Living, Senior Centers, and the Coronavirus - Pt. 1

Najahe Sherman has an extended conversation with Ann Anderson, the Executive Director of Casa of Madison County.

Topics include how volunteers with assisted living programs are continuing to help, and what you should do if you have loved ones in a facility.

Plant workers hospitalized.

>>> every night at 6:00 we are taking you deeper intinto impact of the coronavirus with conversations with local leaders and eshes perts.

Tonight we're joined by ann anderson.

She is the executive director of casa of madison county.

First, ann, thank you for everything that you're doing.

You're being such an amazing advocate for older adults in our community through all of this.

>> ann ander scon: thank you for having me, again, naj najahe.

>> najahe sherman: and so viewers, for viewers who may not be familiar, tell us about some of that amazing work that casa does and what it stands for.

>> casa is the care assurance system for the aging and homebound of madison county.

Our demographic is 60 and older or anybody of any age that's wheelchair or bed-bound with the mobility issue.

And our mission is to keep our aging and our homebound in their homes to live with dignity, independence, and safely.

So that's our whole mission right there.

We want them to be safe in their home.

We want them to feel independent and we want them to live with dignity.

>> najahe sherman: and how are your volunteers and workingers able to reach these people during the pandemic?

>> we are spending an awful lot of time on the phone, making a lot of phone calls and checking on our clients.

And that's value added to them because so many of them truly live alone and don't have resources for people to call them.

We're checking in with them.

They feel free to call us.

We have that relationship with them, najahe.

We have visited our clients.

We know their situation.

We know their family.

We know what's going on.

And with that relationship you can build on it.

One of my staff hers said that she was on the phone with one of our clients for two hours because the person needed somebody to talk to, somebody to vent with.

So they're doing that.

The volunteers, oh, my gosh, we couldn't do what we do without our volunteers.

And they are amazing, caring people that are eager to get back out there and to serve, again, to take care of our population.

>> najahe sherman: and you shared the story about your volunteer spending two hours on the phone.

That's so important right now because we know this older adult population even before the pandemic sometimes feels so isolated.

So what advice would you offer to people in our community maybe if you have an older adult neighbor or friend, what should you do?

>> ms. anderson rrs i : ithink you should reach out to them.

I know it's hard, especially wearing masks and the environment we're living in right now.

But still, just a way, if somebody would just acknowledge somebody and smile at them as you see them, and you can talk to people.

You know, it's got to be distance of six feet, but stand six feet away and ask them how they're doing, engage them in a conversation.

The weather is perfect.

You know, on a dale like this you wouldn't want to be outside but that neighbor to neighbor relationship should be building now.

It's a perfect time to get to know some of your neighbors, especially if you're homebound.

>> najahe sherman: that's such an important reminder, something as little as a smile or a wave can be so impactful on someone's day.

How much of an impact has coronavirus had on what you do?

>> ms. anderson: you know, everybody is talking about how you've had a go with the flow and transition and work around all the obstacles and everything.

As i was driving up here i thought about it, we're all growing, we're all changing a little bit from this, in a good way, too.

It's been hard.

But we are evaluating how we do our services, what's really necessary, what is important today wasn't -- the services we do are always important but today the most important service we're giving is we're there.

We're answering the phones.

We're talking to our clients.

We have volunteers that are going out and making deliveries to them.

They know that they're still cared about.

That's how they know that we still care about them and we want to take care of them and we're not -- we know they're isolated but we don't want them to feel alone.

We want them to know that they're still valued.

>> najahe sherman: what are some of the challenges your volunteers in your organization is facing right now?>> ms. andel y, we have trained -- we have been retraining ourselves as well as our volunteers.

We've really haven't had any problems with either -- anye volunteers because they understand and they know the clients.

They know that they have to keep that distance and i think the hard part for the volunteers adjusting to, quite honestly, is that not being able to get up there and be in a personal relationship, talking to them, holding their hand, patting them on the shoulder, hugging them.

That's been the hardest thing for all of us because we're touchy-feely people and i never used to be that way but, boy, you know, somebody's hand on your shoulder, somebody looking you in the eye and you can see them and hear them, and just listening to what you have to say is so important.

>> najahe sherman: i think we'll all be so excited when we finally get to engage people in that way again.

Tell me, is casa working with any of the nursing homes in our area?

>> ms. anderson: we don't but we have one of the meta keeping us posted on what's going on.

They are all enter sighing the most stringent regulations because they want to keep their patients safe.

And my 99-year-old mother is in an assisted living in missouri.

We were contacted that, you know, nobody has had the virus, even if they lessen the restrictions, they're still going to keep in place no visitors.

Because, again, they are at high risk.

>> najahe sherman: right.

You were saying?

>> ms. anderson: i think that's what everybody has to understand.

Our clients don't need to be out and about.

When you have 76% of them with, you know, with hypertension and blood pressure and heart disease and diabetes and chronic illnesses and on medications, they don't need to be out.

And i think that's the other side of this, najahe.

We have to remember, family and friends, you know, we got to practice safe distance if we've been somewhere that might bring something into your loved one or could cause harm to your loved one.

>> najahe sherman: that's a really important reminder and especially as we transition out of this first wave of the stay-at-home order, wearing the bhasks is not just to protect yourself but it's to protect other older adults in our community from us.>> ms. andersl utely.

And washing their hands.

Everybody thinks they have to have hand sanitizer.

Just using soap and water and scrubbing them and doing whatever you want to do, 20 seconds of washing your hands can do a great -- it's a big deal.

It makes a difference.

That mask makes a difference.

Do i like the mask?

Do i like being told to wear it, najahe?

No.

But we wear them in the office.

In the office we practice social distancing, wear the mask, wear gloves and have sanitizer all over the place.

>> najahe sherman: all right.

>> you've got to do it.

>> najahe sherman: thank you, ann.

I will be wearing my mask, too.

We're going to take a quick break.

Cop coming up waay 31 sat down with the alabama department of veterans affairs to learn about what they are doing to protect residents and veterans' homes during the coronavirus