*As of this advisory, there are 481 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma. New counties with cases include Beckham, Cotton and Love counties. These counties will now be required to come into compliance with Governor Kevin Stitt’s “Safer at Home” executive order that calls for non-essential businesses in counties with COVID-19 cases to temporarily suspend services until April 16.
* There is an additional death in Cleveland County: a male in the 50-64 age group.
* There are 17 total deaths in the state.
* Governor Kevin Stitt issued Sunday evening a sixth amendment to Executive Order (EO) 2020-07, requiring travelers from six states to self-quarantine for 14 days, to include New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, and Washington.
* Governor Stitt’s amended Executive Order also requires delivery personnel to submit to screenings when making deliveries at hospitals, clinics, long term care facilities and daycares. The EO also protects health care workers and their families from discrimination in housing or child care.
* REMINDER: Governor Stitt’s “Safer at Home” order includes the following guidelines for all 77 counties until April 30:

* No gatherings in groups larger than 10 people.
* People age 65 or older or those with a compromised immune system must shelter at home.
* PLEASE NOTE: Some local municipalities, to include Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Norman, have put into place law enforcement efforts to enforce the Governor’s order as well as the cities’ additional “shelter in place” policies.
* On both statewide and municipal levels, individuals can still leave for essential errands such as to grocery stores or pharmacies. Please call 2-1-1 or visit covidresources.ok.gov for resources and information.
* For more information, visit coronavirus.health.ok.gov.
This update is as of March 30, 2019.

A team from INTEGRIS Volunteer Services and other staff are busy making much needed eye protection and face shields for our caregivers on the frontlines of the current COVID-19 crisis.
While many of our volunteers are seniors, this particular group only consists of select members of the volunteer auxiliary who are under the age of sixty in an attempt to protect individuals in the age group considered most vulnerable to the illness.
The volunteers started making the protective gear on Wednesday afternoon and have already completed 1,000 pieces. They have enough supplies, thanks to a partnership with Hobby Lobby, to make a total of 10,000 face shields. The group plans to work Monday through Saturday until they are done.
This is yet another example of Oklahomans willing to roll up their sleeves and do whatever is necessary to properly defend our troops for battle.

Commissioner Mulready released the following statement on the passing of former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn:
“Tom Coburn was a friend, statesman and supporter of mine who will be greatly missed. Dr. Coburn was a fierce public policy leader and someone who wouldn’t shy away from working across the aisle to solve our state and national issues. When I was campaigning for Insurance Commissioner, I called Dr. Coburn and asked him to meet with me to discuss some healthcare and health insurance issues. He agreed to meet and graciously sat with me in his home for over an hour.”
“He also stepped out and provided support to me during my 2012 re-election campaign. He acknowledged and supported my efforts to address the challenges with our state’s healthcare and health insurance policies at a time when many of his supporters would not.”
“He will be greatly missed. Sally and I extend our heartfelt condolences and prayers to his family during this difficult time.”

www.caresuitesokc.com

There has been a lot of information out about COVID-19 novel coronavirus, and it’s important to decipher through to find accurate information that can help you and your family be as safe as possible. Here are four things you need to know about COVID-19 from experts at INTEGRIS Health.
1. Practice the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 Safe Guidelines
* Hand Hygiene. Protect yourself by frequently washing your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, then use a 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Make sure that hand sanitizer is not replacing thorough handwashing if available.
* Face. Also avoid touching your eyes, mouth and face as much as possible. If you cough or sneeze, don’t do so into your hands. Cough and sneeze into your elbow or upper sleeve.
* Social Distancing. Stay away from public gatherings of more than 10 people. Put a six-foot distance between yourself and other people where possible. If you can, work from home and limit time spent in crowded public spaces.
2. Signs and Symptoms of COVID-19
* Fever, cough, muscle aches and shortness of breath.
* A runny nose or a sore throat, these are not common symptoms of the COVID-19.
3. How, When and Where to Get Care for COVID-19
Most people with COVID-19 will not need to come to a doctor office, ER or hospital for care.
The following are places you can get care if you have COVID-19 symptoms:
* At Home Care. There is no treatment to cure COVID-19 at this time. Staying home and letting the illness run its course is what most people will need to do.
* Call Ahead or Use TeleHealth. To limit exposure to others, if you feel you need additional help beyond your home care, please seek care in the following ways:
– E-visits with your provider – visit www.INTEGRISandMe.com
– INTEGRIS Virtual Visits. Using INTEGRIS Virtual Visits allows clinical experts to conduct an initial screening for COVID-19.
You can download the app for iPhone and Android, or use on your computer at www.integrisvirtualvisit.com
Emergency Room (ER). Only come to the ER for COVID-19 if you are experiencing difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion or inability to arouse and bluish lips or face.
4. The Need for Testing
* World-wide Shortages. COVID-19 testing kits and personal protective equipment (mask, gowns, etc.) are in short supply due to the worldwide demand.
* Testing appropriateness. The treatment for COVID-19 is not different for confirmed versus suspected COVID-19 patients. Because of the short supply, basic COVID-19 symptoms will not be tested.
* Testing Centers. As COVID-19 testing kits and personal protective equipment become more available, a drive through testing center will be created.

by Vickie Jenkins, Staff Writer

What is StacyCares Oklahoma? StacyCares Oklahoma is a healthcare consulting company offering healthcare advocacy, appointment accompaniment, and visitation services. They provide support and information to clients, caregivers and families to help them navigate care and make informed healthcare decisions.
StacyCares Oklahoma was started by Stacy Hansen, a Board-Certified Patient Advocate with more than ten years of advocacy experience, an MBA in healthcare administration, a Master’s degree in professional writing and communication, and a Bachelor’s degree in biology.
What is a Board Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA)? An advocate is someone who supports or helps the cause of another. The BCPA designation acknowledges Board Certified Patient Advocate professionals who have demonstrated their experience and proficiency in the field of patient advocacy by passing a formal examination. The BCPA credential is built on ethical standards, professional competencies and best practices for professionals who work in patient advocacy and have taken the steps necessary to become certified.
“The most important quality in my business is respecting patient autonomy,” Stacy said. “What I want to emphasize is to let our clients know that they have a voice in their healthcare, and I can help them use it. They also don’t have to be alone. They don’t have to go to their doctor’s appointments, procedures or be in the hospital alone. If they are in a facility, we can visit and check on them. I want seniors in facilities to have the best quality of life they can,” she added.
“The business’s set of personalized services and operating as a private advocate makes StacyCares Oklahoma unusual and unique in Oklahoma. This is what sets us apart from hospital advocates. I work for my clients, representing them and their needs and their interests. As part of our ethic, we honor our clients’ personal values, their right to be involved in their healthcare, and to engage in two-way communication with their providers. We are seeking to empower people to feel in control of their healthcare, to have the best quality of life, and to take some stress out of their healthcare experience she commented.
Stacy explained that some clients struggle with managing their healthcare, or the healthcare of a loved one. “Some clients get stressed by appointments or have trouble talking to or understanding their healthcare providers, or they just want someone to help coordinate their care,” Stacy said. “Effective communication is vital in healthcare. This is why we join clients at medical appointments and procedures—to be supportive, to assist discussions with healthcare providers, and to help them understand diagnoses, treatment plans and instructions. If the client doesn’t have family or friends available to go with them, we go to be by their side. Sometimes, patients aren’t up to advocating for themselves when they are not feeling well. StacyCares Oklahoma can help the client by asking questions to their doctor relaying their concerns, and helping them understand treatment recommendations and plans. We can make those follow up calls for them to ask questions. We can also help coordinate their care to help them understand what each provider is doing. This helps them feel more at east and in control of their healthcare.”
“There are some families that live far away from their loved ones in Oklahoma. We offer personalized social and well-being visits to residents in long-term care facilities to help alleviate loneliness and put distant families at ease. We offer another set of eyes, devoted to checking on their loved ones well-being. Our social and wellness visits are tailored to our client’s needs and include assisting communication with friends and family. We want to help maximize the quality of life,” Stacy said.
Sometimes, potential clients ask the question, why do I need a private advocate? The healthcare system can be challenging and overwhelming, and sometimes scary and confusing. It can help to have an experienced advocate focused on their needs, providing additional information about what their healthcare provider or insurance company says, and helping them and communicate questions and decisions.

If you have any questions, feel free to call 1-405-802-3730 or email info@StacyCaresOK.com or check out www.StacyCaresOK.com or follow them on Facebook.

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by Greg Schwem

For 30 years I’ve made my living as a standup comedian. I’ve stood on iconic stages including the Grand Ole Opry and the Chicago Theatre. I’ve gazed out at crowds as large as 10,000 and as small as six. We won’t talk about the six.
My moods following my performances have run the gamut from elation to despair. From feeling like I’m the first person to set foot on an uncharted planet to wanting to jump into a recently dug grave and instructing the backhoe operator to “just bury me now.”
The one commonality to all these shows was a live audience. The coronavirus has, for the immediate future, taken away my ability to perform.
Or has it?
Enter the concept of virtual entertainment, an idea that has never really taken off considering that, despite the available technology, most people ultimately think it’s weird to watch a hologram of Prince or another deceased rock star “playing” live on stage. The connection a performer feels to an audience works in reverse too; the audience must feel that same connection.
So when a show I was scheduled to perform for 1,200 members of the dairy industry in Madison, Wisconsin, joined the scrap heap of cancellations on my calendar, I was not hesitant, rather overjoyed, when the organizers said they wanted to me to perform virtually.
Of course, that would mean performing standup comedy to a camera, without a crowd. The audience, I was told, would watch from bedrooms, hotel rooms and home offices, surrounded, most likely, by nobody.
Not exactly the ideal audience for a comedian. Still, the show must go on.
At 8 p.m., I entered a conference room that looked as if preparations were in place for some sort of invasion. A half-eaten takeout pizza sat on a round table big enough to seat 10. Snacks, drinks and sandwiches purchased from an attached hotel represented lunch for the staff tasked with running the virtual operation. Dinner too.
A few IT personnel stared intently at laptops as another virtual presenter, speaking from God only knows where, gave a speech entitled “Practical Proven Systems for More Profitable Innovation.” I heard his voice and saw the PowerPoint slides he had assembled for his talk, but I didn’t see him.
Instead I saw an empty stage and a single camera pointed at it.
“That’s where you’ll be,” the conference organizer told me.
When the previous speaker had concluded, another member of the organizational team grabbed a mic and said, “We have some questions.” These questions, I assume, were submitted by attendees watching virtually. Of the 10 people in the conference room, nobody raised a hand.
The unseen presenter answered several questions and then it was time for me. Like a normal show, a tech clipped a lavalier microphone to my shirt; like a normal show I stood slightly offstage awaiting my introduction. And, like a normal show, I bounded onstage when I heard my name.
The next 45 minutes were left to my imagination.
The conference room participants — seven staff members and three techs — did their best to laugh at my jokes, which, naturally, included a few references to the massive elephant in the room.
“I’m staying in a very nice hotel here in Madison,” I said. “I only live two hours from here, so I don’t really need a hotel. But I was out of toilet paper and the hotel had some.”
Strangely, the longer I performed, the more confident I was that somebody was laughing somewhere. A few laughs from the 10 people in the room were all I needed to keep going. Yes, there were some uncomfortable moments, but it’s also uncomfortable doing standup at a party in the hull of a Catamaran. OK, I brought up the audience of six. Sorry.
I hope there will be no more virtual shows in my career. I hope to be back on stage soon, where I can see and converse with real audience members.
But COVID-19 has taught me one thing: Laughter cannot be quarantined.
(Greg Schwem is a corporate stand-up comedian and author of two books: “Text Me If You’re Breathing: Observations, Frustrations and Life Lessons From a Low-Tech Dad” and the recently released “The Road To Success Goes Through the Salad Bar: A Pile of BS From a Corporate Comedian,” available at Amazon.com. Visit Greg on the web at www.gregschwem.com.)
You’ve enjoyed reading, and laughing at, Greg Schwem’s monthly humor columns in Senior Living News. But did you know Greg is also a nationally touring stand-up comedian? And he loves to make audiences laugh about the joys, and frustrations, of growing older. Watch the clip and, if you’d like Greg to perform at your senior center or senior event, contact him through his website at www.gregschwem.com)

aefuneral.com

Story by Susan Slater

How Seniors Can Trust They’ve Found a Reputable Roofer
A lot of companies say they specialize in working with seniors. But Dennis Helm, of Smooth Finish Roofing & Construction, shows it.
Dennis is an industry partner and a member of OKALA (Oklahoma Assisted Living Association). He also has industry partnerships with several important senior organizations: Oklahoma’s Senior News and Living, The Oklahoma Senior Journal, Senior GuidePost, and The VillagesOKC. When Dennis says he enjoys working with seniors and wants to help them, he means it!
Dennis has been a senior advocate for as long as he’s been a business owner of Smooth Finish. He came about this from a place of caring for those who may be vulnerable to scammers because of difficulties he faced as a child.
How Smooth Finish can help seniors
1) If you are working with a senior who would like to stay in their home, Smooth Finish can install a good-quality roof on their home that will last.
They can also help with other repairs and modifications on the homes of seniors who want to age in place. Besides roofing, Smooth Finish can do ceiling leak repair, guttering, siding, garage doors, fencing, painting, and more.
2) If you have a client who is moving into a senior living center and needs to sell their home, they may likely need a new roof or other repairs. Smooth Finish will do excellent work at a fair price, so your client’s home can pass all the inspections required for a sale.
3) Smooth Finish is not only certified and licensed* to do roofing for residential homes, but for senior living facilities as well.
Owner Dennis Helm—a true senior advocate
With his sincere desire to help seniors, Dennis always works to encourage people to use only local, licensed, and insured roofing contractors with hundreds of verifiable references. There are just too many terrible stories of things going wrong when people don’t.
Warning: roofers may not be who they seem to be!
“I’ve heard it many, many times,” Dennis says, “most people don’t trust roofers. That’s because in this industry there are a lot of fly-by-night roofers. They come in town, start a ‘company,’ get magnets on their car, and in 24-hours they look like a legitimate business. But they’re not.”
Unreliable scammers always rush into town after a storm has hit to solicit people who need roofing services. These unscrupulous “companies” many times will claim to be local, even though they’re not, and may go to great lengths to look like they’re hometown guys.
Dennis tells about having a man from out of town contact him after a bad storm hit the Oklahoma City area. This man wanted to “buy” the Smooth Finish company name, and use Dennis’s address and phone number for six months. He offered a good price, too! He wanted to appear to be a local, established company when soliciting roof jobs.
Dennis warns people to not be fooled. He says, “I wasn’t about to go for that deal, but other companies will.” He continues, “I want people with roofing needs in Oklahoma City to rest at ease. I want them to know that when they use Smooth Finish Roofing & Construction, they’re getting an honest, reputable company. I’m a lifelong resident and have 32 years expertise in this business.”
Ask for licensing numbers and for references, and then check them out! Dennis explains that reputable roofers live and work in the same city where their business is located. “We don’t go out of town, except for previous and existing customers. There is always more than enough work for us right here in the 620 square miles of Oklahoma City.”
Your clients will thank you for a Smooth Finish recommendation
You can feel confident in recommending Smooth Finish Roofing & Construction to the clients you’re helping. For the homeowner, Dennis can work on the rooftop, the floor, and everything in between. He’s licensed General Contractor for the City of Oklahoma City* and has been in business for 32 years.
Since 1987, Dennis has been helping customers with decisions concerning their homes. Many times, he’s found simple solutions for complex problems. He works to keep the costs fair and reasonable, and lives by the Smooth Finish motto: “Where quality craftsmanship meets fair pricing.” Give Dennis a call on his personal cell phone at (405-923-5127).
He’ll be happy to come visit you for a free consultation, inspection, and estimate. And he’ll be glad to give you references so you can check with people who have used his services! Dennis adds, “We are proud of and enjoy our solid reputation. We enjoy serving seniors, military, and single mothers—and we only move forward with a job when you’re comfortable.”
*Oklahoma CIB #0242 and City of Oklahoma City license #13705

www.smoothfinishroofing.com

story and photo by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

It’s been two years now since Emily Spitler decided to channel her creative energy into stained glass.
And the world is a better place for it.
“I really enjoy working on the mosaics as it is very rewarding seeing the finished product and knowing that it was something I created,” Spitler said. “It also gives me tremendous satisfaction when someone sees one of my pieces, their eyes light up and they point to it and say ‘I want that one’ with a huge smile on their face.”
She originally set out to do it as a hobby but as she got more and more involved with it, decided to put some things up for sale. Her daughter, Stacey, created a Facebook page for her to share her art work and then it just blossomed from there.
Besides having her online store at www.emilyscreations.net, she has also had a booth at last fall’s Affair of the Heart and the Santa Market. She is hoping to have a booth later this year at a few more shows.
Spitler used to own a knitting and craft store in Prague originally called The Knitting Needle then once she added more gift items the location changed and the name was changed to Emily’s Gift World.
She’s always been involved in arts and crafts. First there was ceramics, then of course knitting, crocheting and all kinds of needlework. She started sewing during grade school and was involved in 4-H.
She still plants a garden each year and, of course, she starts the seeds from scratch and even mixes up her own soil. Her tomato and okra plants have been known to reach over 8’ tall. She enjoys cooking and collecting recipes to try. She even makes her own bread (including hamburger buns), pickles and tomato sauce!
She really enjoys doing the mosaic art because of the mystery of how each design will turn out. She starts by cutting the glass sheets, then laying it out on a pattern. The glass has to be ground on the grinding wheel to get the desired shape and to smooth out the sharp edges. Each piece of glass is glued down into the design.
She then mixes up the grout and applies it to the entire piece. After approximately 15-20 minutes, the grout is cleaned off. Many times, the grout has to be cleaned off with a pick to get between the tiles/glass.
Just by changing the color of the grout, you can get a completely different look.
On the large mural 3’x6’ mural called “The Wave”, it took 4 months to complete. Many hours were spent grinding each piece of glass and mirror. She enlisted the help of both her daughter and husband to assist.
Depending upon the complexity of the piece it can take up to 3 weeks or longer to complete. She has used other mediums in her pieces including sand, shells, rocks, mirrors, beads, tiles and broken dishes
Her artwork brings out the best not only in herself but others.
Daughter Stacey recalls a funny story at her aunt’s 95th birthday celebration.
“We put her mosaic cross into a Harry and David box so she thought she was getting a box of clementines when she unwrapped the gift,” Stacey remembers. “Before she unwrapped the gift she was so happy and excited to get the box. When she unwrapped it and saw the Harry and David box, the expression on her face was priceless! She was so disappointed and at a loss for words. I actually thought she was going to start crying.”
“Then she went ahead and opened the box to unveil the mosaic cross and a big smile appeared. She said that she was so happy to get the cross instead of the clementines!”
Spitler’s work has been honored, most recently winning 1st and 3rd place at the 2019 Oklahoma State Fair.
You can also connect with her on Facebook at Emily’s Creations.

www.LegendSeniorLiving.com

The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has donated more than 25,000 protective gloves to the Integris Baptist Medical Center. The donation came after Integris officials put out a call for personal protective equipment, or PPE.
Across the state and nation, shortages of PPE have heightened concerns that first responders and medical workers might be at higher risk of contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus and passing it on to patients.
OMRF has suspended most biomedical research during the pandemic. So, researchers joined together to gather spare laboratory supplies, which also included masks and other PPE desperately needed in hospitals, clinics and testing facilities.
“Our scientists reacted immediately to the request,” said OMRF’s Lijun Xia, M.D., Ph.D., who helped spearhead the effort.
“As a medical scientist, I knew that it was essential to get Integris staff sufficiently equipped so they could help patients in Oklahoma,” said Xia. “When I heard their supplies were running low, I was really concerned and wanted to contribute as quickly and as much as possible.”
OMRF healthcare providers continue to treat patients in the foundation’s rheumatology and multiple sclerosis centers. “So, it’s vital that we still retain adequate supplies to protect caregivers and patients when they visit,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott, M.D. “But this is a crisis, and if we can help other medical professionals who are risking their lives by sharing part of our inventory, we will.”
In addition to the PPE donation, OMRF scientists are teaming with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in an emergency effort to process COVID-19 tests. Led by Joel Guthridge, Ph.D., a team of OMRF scientists is temporarily relocating to OU Medicine, where they will operate a high-speed polymerase chain reaction system OMRF has moved there temporarily, as well as a new robot OMRF has purchased to help accelerate testing.
The goal of the effort is to increase the state’s testing capacity. When fully operational, OMRF and OUHSC scientists hope the facility will be able to process up to several thousand tests a day.
“Experts say Oklahoma’s numbers will increase dramatically when more testing becomes available,” said Prescott, a physician and medical researcher. “The sooner we can get our arms around the true magnitude of this health crisis, the better we’ll be able to fight it.”
Testing will also help those worrying about whether they’ve contracted COVID-19. “Knowing whether you have the virus could improve your chances of recovery,” said Prescott, “and aggressive quarantine measures can save others from contracting it.”

Story and photos by Darl DeVault

Seniors either retirement privileged or close to that status face an important question around the world as we now see the importance of aging in place brought on by COVID-19-driven orders to shelter in place.
The question for those trying to add to the quality of life they have built for themselves throughout their decades of hard work and life experience is do they allow themselves to become dependent?
Seniors have grown up in an age of independence, of individual rights for those pulling for the greater good.
We have recently heard many directives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during this COVID-19 Global Pandemic. The CDC says during a COVID-19 outbreak in your community, stay home as much as possible to further reduce your risk of being exposed.
Perhaps for seniors the CDC’s definition of aging in place “the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level” should define their future.
A member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Kara De La Pena, who owns a metro urgent care mobile practice, is advising her patients to make changes to their home to compensate for their disabilities. This allows them to age in place.
And yet many healthy, disability-free seniors have chosen to amass in retirement communities. With 15 years of delivering medical services, De La Pena has seen a downside to this choice recently while delivering urgent care to her patient’s home.
“The number of patients with serious complications I have seen recently during this pandemic is astounding—often times requiring careful consideration of sending them to a higher level of care or leaving them to manage their symptoms,” said De La Pena, an advanced practice registered nurse whose practice is based on making house calls.
Her certifications in advanced cardiac life support, basic life support, and pediatric advanced life support allow her to fully evaluate her senior patient’s situations. De La Pena has been adding aging in place expertise to her delivery of medical health care as the owner of NP 2 Go.
She says although centers that cater to disability free seniors have a great array of services and amenities, they also come with a serious medical restriction.
Those places are only as medically secure in a pathogen pandemic as the least informed and observant of warnings of social distancing among that population.
While these retirement communities tout wonderful food, convenience, comfortable-bus special excursions to cultural events they fall short in medical privacy. Someone trying to self quarantine cannot prevent other seniors from ignoring the scientifically established demand to stay in their area during a pandemic.
It is not physically possible for self-quarantining seniors to live in a totally private area in a retirement community. Even the milder restriction of shelter in place is impossible when others can insist on inflicting their social visits.
Sharing beautiful common areas can be a minus, just as the pressure to attend a variety of planned activities can short circuit the best intentions to be safe. Some residents may not be able to resist the temptation to socialize with friends and neighbors every day.
Seniors trying to do the right thing in a pandemic are at the mercy of those people who have the least ability to understand science. Some people do not understand the gravity of the situation, or exercise social inhibitions in a time of emergency.
If a senior remains in their home, aging in place, they are far more likely able to avoid a medical emergency based on the spread of a pathogen.
“Sheltering in place is nearly impossible in communal living, which is why aging in place is of utmost importance-now and in the future,” De La Pena said. “Our physical health and mental health often meld together for a balance which creates a homeostasis that directly affects our personal health. Aging in place provides independence, prevents communal illnesses, and promotes self-care.”
Aging in place means solving safety and inappropriate accessibility issues. It creates home living that is safe and accessible without sacrificing individuality. With our leaders calling this pandemic a war, why be on the front lines when you can choose to be a non-combatant by sheltering in place?
“For my older patients there are no potentially promising treatments available in this COVID-19 crisis. Sheltering in place is the only course of action that reliably gives seniors the possibility of a treatment benefit,” De La Pena said. “If seniors have already given up their right to age in place, they have no confidence that the possibility of a treatment benefit is in the offing.”
Now many seniors and retirees can see had everyone been able to truly shelter in place from the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, there would have been far fewer deaths in their demographic.
Instead, because of illness and disability and the choice of leaving their homes, many seniors were extra vulnerable while amassed in facilities other than their homes.
The concept of aging in place is as new as the agenda of collective living in retirement and yet it is lagging in importance. A major reason the concept is not widely advocated is business cannot make a great profit from sharing this information with the public.
Business can make a profit by building facilities and luring people out of their homes to be a part of a larger collective.
America has just received an enormous wakeup call about how dangerous this collective living can be. Again, if everyone deemed vulnerable who did not require daily medical attention could have self-quarantined our nation’s COVID-19 virus stats would look much better.
The government has created a new phrase in the last few years—disability free aging.
With the new pathogen pandemic connectedness apparent in the world it begs the question. Shouldn’t those seniors and retirees who are disability free be clinging to the independence and relative safety of living in their own homes.
“Again, while I visit a cross section of ages as patients in their homes, I am very concerned for our senior population with COVID 19 spreading. Aging in place is the safest form of defense for seniors now,” De La Pena said. “I plan on highlighting more government initiatives and programs to help seniors stay in their homes as long as possible. By performing aging in place assessments, I hope to empower more seniors to find ways to age in place as long as their home is a viable sanctuary.”
She recommends everyone with questions about the aging in place agenda visit this informative section of the federal Web site: www.nia.nih.gov/health/aging-place-growing-older-home
Steve Persa, 77, is staunchly an aging in place advocate in Oklahoma City. He sees this pandemic through the eyes of a retired Oklahoma Blood Institute employee who helped solve Oklahoma’s blood supply problems for decades.
“As long as I am healthy and mobile, I will continue to live in my home,” Persa said. “This latest COVID-19 shelter in place episode reinforces my resolve to do so.”

www.arborhouseliving.com