The Orange County Department on Aging suspended activities at its senior centers on March 16 due to the risks presented by COVID-19. This includes activities at the Passmore Center in Hillsborough and the Seymour Center in Chapel Hill.
The two Orange County senior centers serve about 700 people every single day, whether it be providing group meals, learning opportunities, leisure activities or simply a sense of community.
But as the state works to follow social distancing guidelines, the senior centers have been forced to move many of their services online, which can be very isolating for some members of the community.
Janice Tyler serves as the director of the Orange County Department on Aging. She’s been working with the department for 33 years and helps oversee the two centers.
Tyler said it’s been an interesting transitionary time for the senior centers, especially as they shift from in-person activities to providing resources over the phone and online.
She said while the senior centers can essentially provide many of the services they normally do, the social atmosphere may be lacking. That is partly due to the centers having to redistribute their volunteers.
“We could not open the doors to our department without our fleet of volunteers,” Tyler said. “We have close to 500 volunteers that are working with us on a daily basis. That’s either in the senior centers or that’s out in the community.”
Normal operations are different now that these volunteers can’t go into the community like they used to – nor can they help facilitate group activities that have ceased to exist.
Tyler said they are going in to their third week of not having group activities, so they’re having to think outside of the box when it comes to serving their seniors.
“We are transitioning,” Tyler said. “We have gone to some virtual wellness programs that people can find on our website. We can no longer have group meals here, so we have gone to a curbside delivery and we’ve been at that now for about two weeks.”
While the seniors can come out to safely collect meals that will support them throughout the week, Tyler said the most important thing often isn’t even the food but instead the chance for a little human interaction.
“When folks pull up for the curbside meal everybody’s waving to each other and you can just see that they just want to be with their friends,” Tyler said.
Other programs like virtual support groups and the Seymour Tech computer learning classes have also been moved online in an attempt to keep the community healthy.
Even with all these programs online, Tyler thinks the senior community will need more support as people continue to self-isolate and receive very limited social interaction.
“Our aging helpline is still being answered Monday through Friday from nine to four by our social work team and we are starting to get more calls,” Tyler said. “I think as long as this pandemic goes on, I think the number of calls is going to increase and the needs are going to increase.”
To combat this growing need, Orange County’s Department on Aging has upped the number of telephone reassurance calls they’ve been making. These calls act as a wellness check for those who are living alone and might not have anyone else to check in with them every day.
Tyler said they just orientated 21 additional volunteers on top of their previous 15 to help reach out to Orange County’s seniors. These volunteers are part of the center’s efforts to make phone calls to regular participants – just to check in.
“We’re just adapting,” Tyler said. “Every day is a little different and figuring out what else we can do to help people stay connected with each other because we know it’s hard. It’s hard for our staff and we know it’s particularly lonely for our folks that come here on a daily basis to be with their friends.”
To be connected to a program or to find opportunities to volunteer, visit the Orange County Department of Aging’s website.
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