Social service agencies across the county and in the North Quabbin region have worked diligently to keep the elderly and disabled safe, fed and healthy through the pandemic.
A virtual panel hosted by LifePath in Greenfield included Sen. Jo Comerford, North Quabbin Community Coalition Executive Director Heather Bialecki Canning, LifePath Executive Director Barbara Bodzin and South County Senior Center Director Christina Johnson.
Bodzin said LifePath has learned through the pandemic that it has been safer for the elderly and disabled to receive services at home. Comparatively speaking, many fewer died who were taken care of at home, rather than in nursing facilities. She cited state statistics that show 60 percent of the more than 7,000 deaths throughout the state lived in those facilities, while there have been 283 deaths of people being care for at home.
Services and how they have been provided changed at LifePath, a private, nonprofit corporation that provides services to the most vulnerable populations and helps keep them in their homes, serving all of Franklin County and Athol, Petersham, Royalston and Phillipston, and some programs are available in Hampden, Hampshire and Berkshire counties, during the pandemic.
“We’ve worked out of the office, except for reception and our meals program, but none of our services were interrupted,” she said.
Daily hot meals the agency delivers went from hot to chilled to frozen, she said.
“We’ve been doing telephonic evaluations and assessments, instead of in-person,” she said. “We wanted limited exposure for everyone.”
Many of the people LifePath serves turned to family and friends during the pandemic, Bodzin said, and many personal care attendants collected unemployment over the past few months.
“We provided meals, grocery cards, pickup and delivery of prescriptions and essential needs and more,” she said.
Bialecki Canning said folks in the North Quabbin area “have been covered” during the pandemic. The coalition has formed and maintained many partnerships over the past few months to help vulnerable people who have run into the same barriers.
“Social isolation has been a huge issue,” Bialecki Canning said. “But people have been taking advantage of programs. We’ve made sure folks have felt they could contact us to get the support they need.”
She said neighbors have been helping neighbors in many ways, and everyone has been creative about helping each other.
“I’m so impressed with the resourcefulness,” she said.
Comerford, who heads the Joint Committee on Public Health, said the committee has been working on all types of issues, including more support and accountability to nursing homes, as well as hunger, which has been a huge issue and has affected more people than before the pandemic.
The state must improve health care, she said, and must also pay more attention and provide support to home care, because it has better clinical outcomes, provides companionship for elders and the disabled and is more cost-effective.
Comerford said she filed bills to provide pay to spouses for being primary caregivers at home, more support from Medicare to people who are being taken care of safely at home and increased telemedicine, and they are moving through the legislative process.
“We want to keep looking at the advances in telemed services, especially through a rural lens,” she said. “People want to age in place with independence and dignity. In rural areas we find issues with being able to use telemed.”
With the high cost of living in Massachusetts, the senator said people are going to need help to be able to age in place. She said people should contact their legislators with any questions or concerns or if they require help getting something they need.
Community Action Pioneer Valley Executive Director Clare Higgins said the agency is “seeing the big picture while working through the weeds.”
“We have a lot of programs that have helped local people stay warm through the winter with fuel assistance, helped them pay their utility bills, helped them pay their rent and prevent evictions and have fed them, which is a giant issue,” she said.
While the nonprofit had to change the way it has done some things, for instance, instead of visiting its food pantry, people have had to pick up food boxes curbside throughout the pandemic, Higgins said the changes Community Action has had to make have been pretty seamless.
Community Action has been providing gift cards for groceries and gas and has helped grandparents who are raising or helping care for their grandchildren so that parents could work. She said the agency has also been helping people, as it has in the past, file their tax returns for free — the taxpayer receives the entire refund, if there is one.
Higgins suggested people visit www.Look4Help.org for more information about local resources.
“Our center has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic,” Johnson said, “but our staff has continued to work from the office and provide support to people, including to-go lunches.”
Johnson said people have received two meals daily — lunch at lunchtime and breakfast for the next day. The center has delivered to those who could not pick up.
“We’re a small center, so we serve about 50 meals per day, though it’s more when we’re open,” she said. “We have a drive-through where people can pick up their meals. Many like to use it because they can socialize briefly and that’s the highlight of some of their days.”
She said center staff and volunteers make wellness phone calls to check on people each day and week.
“The biggest issues for most (seniors and disabled) are isolation and loneliness,” she said. “The group we typically service in person like to play cards, sit and talk. They can’t do that right now.”
Johnson said the center has done some Zoom calls, there is a pen-pal program that pairs seniors with Sunderland Elementary School students and the center provides gift cards and a food box program monthly.
The center does not yet have plans to re-open, but is discussing whether there is a way to get people together outside so that they can see friends again until those plans are solidified.
“We’ll probably have a ‘new normal,’ but this vulnerable population just needs to be around people again,” she said.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.