Life with COVID-19 is hard for everyone, but Council on Aging (COA) has been working to serve one of our community’s most vulnerable groups — older adults.
More than 183,000 people age 65 and older live in southwestern Ohio. Council on Aging’s mission is to help them stay independent in their homes. Through services including home-delivered meals, personal care, medical transportation and more, COA serves more than 26,000 individuals annually.
“We are all experiencing the pandemic’s effects,” says Council on Aging CEO Suzanne Burke. “But COVID-19 has made older adults in our community feel especially vulnerable, anxious and isolated.”
And for good reason: older adults are among the groups most at risk for complications from COVID-19. In fact, as the virus spread in Ohio, a trend emerged: people age 60 and older account for more than 60 percent of coronavirus-related hospitalizations and more than 90 percent of deaths.
Realizing the impact COVID-19 could have on older adults, COA began preparing in January.
“We learned from past emergency situations that food quickly becomes an urgent need for older adults,” says Burke. “We didn’t want supply chain or staffing issues to interfere with our ability to provide meals to older adults, and we knew that they might be asked to shelter-in-place for quite a while.”
COA’s intuition was spot on. When Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued the stay-at-home order in March, COA began hearing from older adults who were afraid to go out for groceries and other necessities. Others found themselves without their regular support network. Many who contacted COA had never before needed help.
Working with its provider network, COA quickly adapted services. COA service providers delivered 15,000 emergency food boxes to home-delivered meals recipients. And, seniors who previously attended congregate meals began receiving “carry out” meals. Another 500 older adults began temporarily receiving home-delivered meals due to the pandemic.
The pandemic created opportunities for COA to partner with new organizations and volunteers. Working with Crossroads Church, Frame USA and others, COA distributed donated household and personal care supplies to older adults. As supplies arrived in our region, COA helped emergency management agencies distribute them to older adults and service providers.
As time went on, COA sought ways to provide comfort, as well as support. Volunteers made weekly wellness calls to older adults and the agency shared resources via its online channels to help fight social isolation. After receiving funding to expand meal service during the pandemic, COA worked with LaRosa’s and Taste of Belgium to provide 6,200 (and counting) special meals to older adults living in low- income apartment buildings. Thank you notes and voicemails began streaming in from older adults who had felt forgotten and depressed by the monotony of the pandemic.
Recognized as a national expert in helping older adults navigate care transitions, COA worked alongside hospital leaders and emergency management personnel to plan for a surge of patients discharging from area hospitals. Later, COA led a local work group focused on limiting COVID-19’s spread in senior apartment buildings.
Ohio is slowly reopening, but COA’s Burke is focused on the pandemic’s long-term impact on older adults. “Older adults will continue to feel the impact of this virus; they remain vulnerable,” she emphasizes. Burke says her agency is still in response mode and is exploring how technology can help staff and providers establish a new “normal” for serving our region’s older adults.
Older adults who need help because of COVID-19 should contact Council on Aging at 513.721.1025 or visit www.help4seniors.org. Council on Aging is the state-designated Area Agency on Aging serving Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton and Warren counties.