The Connected Senior (In a Time of Quarantine)

Throughout your life, you surround yourself with a village. Maybe it’s new moms who join a playgroup, golfing buddies you see every weekend, or family members who live nearby and can help when needed. The people in your village are the go-to people when you need help, advice, a covered dish, or anything else, especially as you age. This village is vital to your mental health at any age, but essential to have as you get older. Your network helps keep you grounded and accountable, and keeps your mind active. This support network helps you cope with the ups and downs of life as you age.

These support and community networks that we create or that coalesce around us can consist of many different groups. All these groups or individuals play a part in supporting the senior community. Whether it’s your own flesh and blood or a tight-knit group of friends, your support network should consist of the following groups:

  • Caregivers and emergency support network. These are the frontline members of your network. They include your physicians, specialists, nurses, home health care team, therapists, and personal caregivers such as your children or family members who take care of most of your nonmedical needs. These folks support your medical and physical needs, and often your mental needs as well. It can also include service providers such as financial planners, elder care legal assistance, insurance agents, and your assisted living or nursing home care providers. All of these caregivers work together to provide you with the support you need to age gracefully.
  • The home-centric network. This group includes everything from Uber Eats to Lyft to Instacart or your local grocery store delivery service. Delivery services have been a boon to the senior community, providing them with meals, groceries, medications, and anything else they need coming straight to their doorsteps. There are even apps such as Takl that can help you find someone to take on odd jobs, from junk removal to yard mowing to assembling furniture or cleaning your ceiling fans. Technology has become a huge part of everyone’s support network. Another way that technology can work for you as you age is to consider investing in a life alert system that can contact emergency services in case you fall or suffer a heart attack or stroke when no one is around. You can check out the medical alert system reviews to find the right one for you and your lifestyle. This is just another example of making technology work for you as you age.
  • Friends and family network. This social network keeps your heart and soul fed. These are your close friends and family members who always have your back and can offer up any kind of support that you may need. Technology is also helpful if you need to keep in touch with your friends and family who live far away or who can’t visit very often. FaceTime, Skype and the like are all apps and programs to help you reach out to your friends and family when you feel lonely, need some conversation, or just want to touch base with. At the very least, texting and making contact through social media are effective ways to stay in contact with friends and family members.

In addition to these networks, some organizations also work to formulate senior support networks embedded into their communities organically. One great example is the “Village to Village Network“. The Village organization began in Boston and has now grown into a consortium of locations across the country and world. From their website, they define a Village as: “nonprofit, grassroots, membership organizations that are redefining aging by being a key resource to community members wishing to age in place.” These organizations cater to the senior crowd by providing such necessary services as transportation, technology assistance, running errands, community engagement activities, and other needed resources. Each Village “reflects the community it serves and transforms the ‘Silver Tsunami’ of aging baby boomers into a ‘silver reservoir’ that grows and strengthens its community.”

This community-minded organization is the essence of what a senior support network looks like. They pool their respective resources, provide much-needed services to their specific community, and then reinvest in the model to increase the availability of such services. The support and assistance that comes from living within such a Village goes a long way to preserving a healthy and alert mind as older adults age more, including the end-of-life help that may be needed when seniors are faced with hospice and palliative care decisions.

With resources such as these available to all of us, your own senior support network should look better than ever.