Caring for older adults, whether they are a spouse, a parent, a client or a resident, has always been hard. But now with Covid and concerns over spread of infection, face-to-face interaction has become a risky proposition and the danger of social isolation and loneliness has become even more serious. The phone is a precious tool in times like these.
But is that enough? Day after day? For years? What's a caregiver to do to change it up?
Enter Zoom.
According to a post on AARP:
Zoom is now a thing for pretty much everyone, including older adults who are “zooming” for family check-ins, book club meetings, happy hours, fitness classes, weddings and religious ceremonies.
"I need the socializing, since the pandemic is so depressing and isolating,” says Alyce Appleman Mariam, 60, whose husband, Tom, taught her to use Zoom. Since then, the Rye Brook, New York, teacher has used the service to connect with cousins, to participate in a Passover seder and to play mah-jongg with friends.
Los Angeles–based doctor Steven Goldberg, 71, a self-described “sober alcoholic,” says being able “to find a Zoom Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at any hour of the day has been the unforeseen gift of this pandemic."
The pandemic has fueled a Zoom boom. Last December the videoconferencing platform reported 10 million “daily participants"; by April 2020 the number had climbed to 300 million.
You can read about how to get started here.
And when you master Zoom and are in search of things to talk about, media to share, come back to Meema Stories.
