May 08, 2020

Sandi Rowland:
Today we have as our guest, Lise-Anne Deoul, from the Office for the Aging. So Lise-Ann, if you could introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the Office for the Aging.

Lise-Ann Deoul:
Certainly. Hello! My name is Lise-Anne Deoul. I’m the director of the Sullivan County Office for the Aging. When you ask, “what are we do?”, I would say our core mission is ‘assisting individuals remain as independent as possible, engaged and connecting them with resources and supports’.

Sandi Rowland:
That’s great. And I imagine that seniors are facing some unique challenges during this time of COVID-19. Can you tell us a little bit about what’s going on with Sullivan County seniors?

Lise-Ann Deoul:
Absolutely. One of the challenges… the first challenge I’d say we faced was following the guidelines of ‘social distancing’, and knowing that the seniors were identified as such a ‘high risk category’ and dealing with that in a timely manner. So one of our largest programs is our nutrition program, Meals on Wheels, and our congregate sites. So making the very difficult decision to discontinue the congregate sites. We kept shifting. So initially what we did is we said, “okay, we can make these meals ‘to go’.” So we were having people come, if they were able to come to the congregate site, pick up their meal, or we were providing it as a delivered meal when possible. As that situation started also becoming problematic with following social distancing guidelines. Also the town halls, as amazing as they are in supporting our programs, we understood that they were going be closing their doors potentially. We said, ‘okay, we need to look at this again’. And we made the decision to… “everyone is now Meals on Wheels, if they need them”. And so that started happening. We were identifying the people highest ‘at risk’, who those Meals on Wheels were such a lifeline, because, for many people, the congregate sites, you get a meal, but it’s really about social engagement. So we were very concerned about that and that’s, I mean, still very much a concern for these seniors that we serve: that this is their lifeline socially and nutritionally.

Sandi Rowland:
Have you found cases where seniors are connecting more via phone or technology or other ways so that they can sort of overcome some of that social isolation?

Lise-Ann Deoul:
I’d say some of them definitely are. For some folks we know the County, unfortunately, where there’s challenges with our broadband service, so they don’t have access. So what are we doing? We’re getting our folks who are teleworking to call all their clients daily, and make sure they’re okay, and connecting with them, because in order to do what we had to do next with the nutrition program, to further enhance the social distancing guidelines was to go to bulk deliveries. We were delivering five days a week, a hot meal. We contract with the Adult Care Center to make our meals. And we anticipated that this may be problematic for staffing and other guidelines that were happening and problems that may occur. And also limiting contact, as far as just the delivery five days a week of bringing food from one person who’s out in the community to senior who’s homebound. So for the past three weeks, what we did is we provided a box of shelf stable food, some produce, and some bread and some milk and some frozen meals. So our folks were well fed, but in a different way. And once a week. This week actually, we just started another phase of this where we’re basically eliminating any contact by having meals directly shipped from a vendor. They come in a big cooler box and, there’s two weeks worth of lunches in there and there’s bread. And some other goodies that come in that box and people can refrigerate or freeze these meals and they could stay in the fridge for up to two weeks. And as the situation unfolds, we can do this again, until we’re able to go back to what we prefer, obviously, a daily contact in person with a hot meal.

Sandi Rowland:
If there are other folks in the community who’d like to help out in any way, what ways could people help to serve our seniors?

Lise-Ann Deoul:
Oh, well, I’d say the first thing I would like to just remind people of.. and I don’t think in Sullivan County especially, people need to be reminded of this because we’re seeing it firsthand how amazing the community is overall, but the folks who, if you’re still able to go to the store and, you know, your neighbor is not able to do that. I would say, knock on their door, and then back up the social distance to say, “I’m going to the store. What do you need?” That would be huge right now. So things like that. “Do you need something from the pharmacy?” Thankfully, a lot of the pharmacies have drive ups so that the guidelines are being adapted really well there, the Shopping Bus, that was another program that is very vital to our seniors that were independently shopping. We had to shut that down because of this crisis. And that’s been very challenging for those folks, but the PCAC has stepped in very much for the folks who had no formal supports to do that. And, we’re getting volunteers to shop for them. So when you ask “What can people step up and volunteer to do?”, I would say we are always looking for volunteers who go food shopping or do pharmacy pickups. That is very, very, very important. And now of course, with the Mask Brigade, looking for volunteers who can sew masks.

Sandi Rowland:
Yeah, that’s great. If someone does need assistance or they want to help, how could they reach your office? What would be the best way?

Lise-Ann Deoul:
Well, the office number is 845-807-0241 but I would advise if they are looking to volunteer at all right now, I would call directly to the East CAC at 845-807-0925.

Sandi Rowland:
Perfect. That sounds great. Well, thank you so much for all your efforts. It’s really reassuring to know our seniors are taken care of and really it is ‘neighbor helping neighbor’. So it’s a good shout out for everybody to watch out for our seniors and see if they need help with their shopping or with pickups. So thank you so much to you and your staff for everything that you’re doing. Thank you.

Lise-Ann Deoul:
Thank you. Thanks.