Senior Services Director Explains Impact Of Pandemic On Senior Citizens
June 10, 2020 at 12:53 a.m.
Senior Services Director Explains Impact Of Pandemic On Senior Citizens
By David [email protected]
Kosciusko County Senior Services Executive Director David Neff took it one step further and explained not only how the coronavirus affected KCSS, but also the senior citizens of the county.
KCSS is requesting $40,000 for 2021, up from $31,203 approved for 2020.
Neff said, “Today, I’d like to do it a little bit different. My presentation, my written request for funding, covers our day-to-day stuff, but what I’d like to do is talk about and focus on our COVID response. Being the executive director of Senior Services when there’s a pandemic directly aimed at seniors is quite challenging, as you can well imagine.”
He reviewed the three KCSS programs the commissioners help fund – the Senior Activity Center (SAC), home-delivered meals and transportation.
Back in March, when the COVID-19 shut-downs began, Neff said his board of directors treasurer, Glenn Hall, recommended he talk to Kosciusko County Health Department Communicable Disease nurse Teresa Reed. On March 11, he talked with Reed, who told Neff she wanted to talk to his seniors. On March 12, Reed came in to the SAC and was aghast at “everyone coming and going,” Neff said, because at that time things hadn’t really changed that much.
“After about a 15-minute talk with her, I realized we had to change things. So she recommended to me that we close the Senior Activity Center immediately. Now, remember, March 12 was a different world for all of us,” Neff said.
He went to the SAC and there were about 50 seniors there. He told them as of March 13, the SAC would be closed. Reed answered everyone’s questions for about an hour. The SAC remains closed, but the activity coordinator is making “comfort calls” to seniors.
“Comfort calls go out to seniors who used to come in all the time and now do not have the activity. They need to hear from people,” Neff said. “We have a segment of our population that their mental health really, really concerns me.”
Neff said what they are finding with the mental health of seniors is that they’re depressed.
“They are home alone. Believe it or not, my activity coordinator has told me there’s a big portion of the seniors that when they try to talk, they’ve been home isolated so long they can’t formulate words. Imagine that. They start to talk and (they can’t) because they haven’t talked to anybody.”
Neff said they’re seeing weight gain in the seniors because they haven’t been out of their house in 3-1/2 months. He said the comfort calls are helping, but he didn’t know if it was enough, but he didn’t know what else to do either.
Reed told Neff early on that the home-delivered meals were essential.
“So we have seniors isolated in their home. They still need the home-delivered meals to come to them,” Neff said, explaining that they’ve changed how they deliver the meals. “We’ve implemented what we call the stop-and-drop system for home-delivered meals. Every senior either has a cooler or a thermal bag, donated by Meijer, that we put the meal in, knock on the door, the volunteer walks away. They can still have a visual, with the social distance, to make sure the senior gets the meal and is OK. And we can actually have a conversation with the seniors, which is what they need, with social distancing.”
Neff’s other concern when the pandemic started was with the volunteers, many of whom are senior citizens. He didn’t want them to feel pressured to deliver meals, but “very few” chose not to volunteer.
“I’m very proud about what I’m about to say. From the start of this, with our volunteers, with home-delivered meals, we’ve not missed one meal. Every single senior on all nine routes have gotten every meal,” Neff said.
On KCSS’s collaboration with Kosciusko Area Bus Service, Neff said they’re taking precautions with riders that they are still taking to medical appointments.
“Our rides are down 80%. We’re not taking the little old lady to get her hair cut right now. That’s about to start again, but not at the moment. We are doing crucial dialysis rides, we are doing crucial medical rides. As per Teresa’s instructions, we’re trying to keep one person on a van. Now, it’s a little more problematic for KABS because they do a lot more rides than us,” Neff said.
He said they’ve bought thermometers and sanitizers so that before a person gets on a bus, their temperature is taken and the bus is sanitized. The bus also is sanitized after the person gets off.
Since KCSS’s own transportation is down, Neff said they’re driving food to Retired Tigers. “We’re doing our best to make it where they can stay in their apartments, but here, again, the mental health is worrying me because we don’t know when it’s going to end,” he said.
Neff said he doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the months ahead, or how long the sheltering-in-place for seniors will last. Reed told him that seniors “can not be on the cutting edge of opening up, we have to be on the latter edge.”
Part of his budget request increase includes possible hazard pay for his employees who have been coming in since the onset of the pandemic.
Other budget requests presented to the commissioners included $44,347 by the Kosciusko County 4H Council, the same amount as 2020; $101,922 by Cardinal Services, the same as 2020; $49,020 by Home Health Care & Hospice, up from the $46,686 approved for 2020; $25,000 by Kosciusko Historical Society, up from $21,686 approved for 2020; $40,000 by Beaman Home, up from $31,203 approved for 2020; and $3,705 by St. Joe River Basin, up from $3,492 approved for 2020.
The total requested for 2021 by all the nonprofits is $303,994, up from $280,539 approved for 2020.
The commissioners will take the requests under advisement for budget planning for 2021. The county council will hear the same budget requests at its 6 p.m. meeting Thursday.
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Kosciusko County Senior Services Executive Director David Neff took it one step further and explained not only how the coronavirus affected KCSS, but also the senior citizens of the county.
KCSS is requesting $40,000 for 2021, up from $31,203 approved for 2020.
Neff said, “Today, I’d like to do it a little bit different. My presentation, my written request for funding, covers our day-to-day stuff, but what I’d like to do is talk about and focus on our COVID response. Being the executive director of Senior Services when there’s a pandemic directly aimed at seniors is quite challenging, as you can well imagine.”
He reviewed the three KCSS programs the commissioners help fund – the Senior Activity Center (SAC), home-delivered meals and transportation.
Back in March, when the COVID-19 shut-downs began, Neff said his board of directors treasurer, Glenn Hall, recommended he talk to Kosciusko County Health Department Communicable Disease nurse Teresa Reed. On March 11, he talked with Reed, who told Neff she wanted to talk to his seniors. On March 12, Reed came in to the SAC and was aghast at “everyone coming and going,” Neff said, because at that time things hadn’t really changed that much.
“After about a 15-minute talk with her, I realized we had to change things. So she recommended to me that we close the Senior Activity Center immediately. Now, remember, March 12 was a different world for all of us,” Neff said.
He went to the SAC and there were about 50 seniors there. He told them as of March 13, the SAC would be closed. Reed answered everyone’s questions for about an hour. The SAC remains closed, but the activity coordinator is making “comfort calls” to seniors.
“Comfort calls go out to seniors who used to come in all the time and now do not have the activity. They need to hear from people,” Neff said. “We have a segment of our population that their mental health really, really concerns me.”
Neff said what they are finding with the mental health of seniors is that they’re depressed.
“They are home alone. Believe it or not, my activity coordinator has told me there’s a big portion of the seniors that when they try to talk, they’ve been home isolated so long they can’t formulate words. Imagine that. They start to talk and (they can’t) because they haven’t talked to anybody.”
Neff said they’re seeing weight gain in the seniors because they haven’t been out of their house in 3-1/2 months. He said the comfort calls are helping, but he didn’t know if it was enough, but he didn’t know what else to do either.
Reed told Neff early on that the home-delivered meals were essential.
“So we have seniors isolated in their home. They still need the home-delivered meals to come to them,” Neff said, explaining that they’ve changed how they deliver the meals. “We’ve implemented what we call the stop-and-drop system for home-delivered meals. Every senior either has a cooler or a thermal bag, donated by Meijer, that we put the meal in, knock on the door, the volunteer walks away. They can still have a visual, with the social distance, to make sure the senior gets the meal and is OK. And we can actually have a conversation with the seniors, which is what they need, with social distancing.”
Neff’s other concern when the pandemic started was with the volunteers, many of whom are senior citizens. He didn’t want them to feel pressured to deliver meals, but “very few” chose not to volunteer.
“I’m very proud about what I’m about to say. From the start of this, with our volunteers, with home-delivered meals, we’ve not missed one meal. Every single senior on all nine routes have gotten every meal,” Neff said.
On KCSS’s collaboration with Kosciusko Area Bus Service, Neff said they’re taking precautions with riders that they are still taking to medical appointments.
“Our rides are down 80%. We’re not taking the little old lady to get her hair cut right now. That’s about to start again, but not at the moment. We are doing crucial dialysis rides, we are doing crucial medical rides. As per Teresa’s instructions, we’re trying to keep one person on a van. Now, it’s a little more problematic for KABS because they do a lot more rides than us,” Neff said.
He said they’ve bought thermometers and sanitizers so that before a person gets on a bus, their temperature is taken and the bus is sanitized. The bus also is sanitized after the person gets off.
Since KCSS’s own transportation is down, Neff said they’re driving food to Retired Tigers. “We’re doing our best to make it where they can stay in their apartments, but here, again, the mental health is worrying me because we don’t know when it’s going to end,” he said.
Neff said he doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the months ahead, or how long the sheltering-in-place for seniors will last. Reed told him that seniors “can not be on the cutting edge of opening up, we have to be on the latter edge.”
Part of his budget request increase includes possible hazard pay for his employees who have been coming in since the onset of the pandemic.
Other budget requests presented to the commissioners included $44,347 by the Kosciusko County 4H Council, the same amount as 2020; $101,922 by Cardinal Services, the same as 2020; $49,020 by Home Health Care & Hospice, up from the $46,686 approved for 2020; $25,000 by Kosciusko Historical Society, up from $21,686 approved for 2020; $40,000 by Beaman Home, up from $31,203 approved for 2020; and $3,705 by St. Joe River Basin, up from $3,492 approved for 2020.
The total requested for 2021 by all the nonprofits is $303,994, up from $280,539 approved for 2020.
The commissioners will take the requests under advisement for budget planning for 2021. The county council will hear the same budget requests at its 6 p.m. meeting Thursday.
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