HEALTH PLUS MED­ICAL COR­RE­SPON­DENT

When it comes to COVID-19, the dis­ease caused by the new coro­n­avirus, old­er peo­ple are es­pe­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble to se­vere ill­ness. Re­search is show­ing that adults 60 and old­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly those with pre­ex­ist­ing med­ical con­di­tions, es­pe­cial­ly heart dis­ease, lung dis­ease, di­a­betes or can­cer are more like­ly to have se­vere — even dead­ly — coro­n­avirus in­fec­tion than oth­er age groups.

If you’re car­ing for an old­er loved one, you might be wor­ried. Dr Ali­cia Ar­ba­je, MPH, PhD spe­cialis­es in in­ter­nal med­i­cine and geri­atrics at Johns Hop­kins Med­i­cine. She shares what you need to know to keep el­der­ly peo­ple safer, and what to do if they do be­come in­fect­ed with COVID-19.

Neg­a­tive Im­pact of So­cial Iso­la­tion

Ar­ba­je says, “Phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing doesn’t have to mean iso­la­tion or lone­li­ness. We need to keep old­er adults safe, but al­so keep in mind that so­cial iso­la­tion can have a neg­a­tive im­pact on old­er peo­ple’s im­mu­ni­ty and men­tal health.”

She notes that in terms of so­cial con­tacts, se­niors should be en­cour­aged to think be­yond their usu­al cir­cle of friends and fam­i­ly. “Say­ing hel­lo to the mail car­ri­er or check­ing in on neigh­bours close by can add to a sense of con­nect­ed­ness,” Ar­ba­je says.

With many hous­es of wor­ship clos­ing their doors un­til the pan­dem­ic eas­es, con­gre­gants, es­pe­cial­ly old­er ones, may feel cut off. “Faith com­mu­ni­ties are of­ten a big part of old­er adults’ so­cial lives,” Ar­ba­je says. Care­givers might help their loved one ac­cess on­line ser­vices and out­reach for spir­i­tu­al so­lace and sup­port.”

Tech­nol­o­gy for Stay­ing Con­nect­ed

To help old­er adults feel in­volved, pur­pose­ful and less lone­ly dur­ing the pan­dem­ic:

• Show them how to video chat with oth­ers us­ing smart­phones, lap­tops or tablets.

• Use apps on these de­vices to pro­vide cap­tions for adults with hear­ing chal­lenges.

• En­cour­age friends and fam­i­ly out­side of your house­hold to tele­phone, write notes or send cards to lift your loved one’s spir­its.

• Keep el­ders in­volved

Think about go­ing through and or­gan­is­ing old pho­tos and mem­o­ra­bil­ia to­geth­er, and en­joy the sto­ries and hap­py mem­o­ries they in­spire. It can be a good time for an el­der to:

- demon­strate cook­ing a favourite fam­i­ly recipe

- share favourite songs or movies with oth­er peo­ple in the house­hold.