Uptown Program For Older NYers In Coronavirus Crisis Needs Funds

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A program helping Uptown seniors who may be isolated during the coronavirus crisis has gotten such a strong response that it needs the public's help to continue.

Organizers of a "WaHi Senior Link" initiative meant to connect older adults in Northern Manhattan with volunteers have set up a fundraiser so they can get the program off the ground.

The $10,000 fundraiser will help the program pay for resources for seniors and train volunteers it has secured since starting to organize in April. The program was originally launched with a seed grant from the Columbia University School of Social Work.

"We have volunteer capacity to serve a wider area in New York. We need funds to make it happen," the organizers wrote online. "Your donation will go to care packages, oral healthcare kits, and volunteer training."

(To keep up with coronavirus news in Washington Heights and Inwood, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Senior Link— the brainchild of two Columbia social work graduate students and a Columbia alumna — has been recruiting volunteers from anywhere in the United States to chat on the phone, send care packages to and help older adults in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx navigate resources they may need during the COVID-19 crisis.

"Even before the pandemic, around 25 percent of older adults could be characterized as socially isolated, and this is exacerbated by the current circumstances which call for social distancing," co-founder Daniella Spencer Laitt told Patch in April.

"Social isolation is a health issue in and of itself, associated with increased risk of mortality, functional decline, dementia and stroke as well as psychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation," she added, referring to information from the National Academies of Sciences.

The program partners volunteers with seniors in the Washington Heights area and will also link seniors with each other to write letters or talk on the phone.

After going through the Senior Link training program, the volunteers will reach out for a "weekly friendly phone call" to their senior partner and figure out what they may need.

They will then help direct the seniors to resources in a directory set up by Senior Link, provide emotional support and use $55 provided by the program to put together a care package.

To find out more about WH Senior Link check out their website.