While we’re all being advised to practice safe social distancing, we know that this could be an unrealistic task for older caregivers and those who are part of a “grandfamily.” In fact, in the DC area, there are over 4,200 grandparents who are the sole caregiver or guardian of children in their homes, and over 12, 000 children who live with a grandparent. Isolating yourself from your grandchildren would be impossible! To help ensure that your family, and families alike, stay safe, active, and equipped with accurate tools and information, we’re sharing best practices and local resources.

First things first, it is best that everyone in your household maintain good hygiene and safe distancing. Here are the most common guidelines for staying safe during this crisis:

Health & Safety

• Wash hands regularly and thoroughly.
• Avoid touching face.
• Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces daily.
• Practice “social distancing” from those you don’t live with. Stay home as much as possible. If you have to meet someone, consider a virtual meeting via phone, tablet, or computer.
• Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Secondly, you want to stay updated with accurate information from valid sources. Here are some local sources:

• DC Health Department
• DC Government
• AARP DC
• DC Department of Aging and Community Living

Mental Health

During this time of uncertainty, you may find yourself feeling antsy, overwhelmed, overly emotional, or filled with worry. And, of course, children may be experiencing the same feelings. Here are some great sources for managing stress or anxiety in your household:

• Read The family lockdown guide: how to emotionally prepare for coronavirus quarantine from The Guardian.
• Here are 5 Ways to Help Teens Manage Anxiety About the Coronavirus from the New York Times.
• Check out Tips for Families: Coronavirus from ZERO TO THREE.

Learning Resources & Activities for Your Children

In addition to you having access to valid information about the virus, children under your care should also receive factual (yet age-appropriate information) and reassurance. Here are excellent resources for communicating information to them about the coronavirus:

• Child Mind: Talking to Kids About the Coronavirus
• Childtrends.org
• Just for Kids, A Comic Exploring the new Coronavirus from National Public Radio
• Answering Your Child’s Questions During the Coronavirus from ZERO TO THREE
• Multilingual Coloring Book for Explaining Coronavirus: This short book is available in 11 languages and offers a place for children to express their feelings about the coronavirus and how it affects their families. It explains what the virus is and how children can help stop its spread. Download a copy at Mindheart.co/descargables.
• Generations United’s Valuing Vaccinations across Generations Intergenerational Discussion Guide has helpful information and strategies for family conversations.

With school closures, you may also be juggling a number of responsibilities: household errands, work assignments, helping with school, etc. These resources and activities for children at home might help:

• Check out Learning Links – 4-H and more! IDEAS FOR LEARNING WHILE SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED (AT HOME & AT CENTERS) from Washington State University.
• Amazingeducationalresources.com
• Learn about 60 days of free access to online games and activities available to families from Caribu.

Food Access

Although schools are closed during this quarantine, schools and childcare centers are still providing meals and other solutions for your family to access food.

• DC schools will say with virtual learning through the rest of the school year. DC Public Schools and DC Public Charter Schools are providing meals for any children under 18. Both the DCPS and the DCPCS sites and their hours can be viewed here.

• The city is now also partnering with Martha’s Table and DC Central Kitchen to provide pre-packed grocery bags at 10 DCPS sites for students and their families. Grocery bags will be distributed Monday-Friday, from 12:30 PM- 2:00 PM.

• DC Greens has an excellent round-up of meal sites throughout the District. Read it here. You can also visit DC Government’s website for more information.
• Additionally, the Department of Aging and Community Living (DACL) is offering frozen meal delivery for older adults. Individuals under age 60 may be eligible if they are the spouse of a homebound older adult or an individual with disabilities that resides with a homebound older adult. Contact (202) 895-9448, and press 1 to reach the Helpline, or email info@iona.org for more information about DACL’s meals.

Family caregivers may also qualify for assistance with groceries, meals, infant formula, and nutrition education. Here are local programs where your family can find support:

• DC Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—this federal Food Stamp Program helps low-income individuals and families afford certain food items. Learn more at the DC Department of Human Services, or call 202-671-4200.
• Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) – States administer federal funds for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.

To round off advice for managing your household during this pandemic, here are a few other tips to help:

• Be sure to have a backup plan. You may want to create or update a “Secondary Permanency Plan” or Advance Care Directive that outlines who can help take care of the child or children under your care in case you are no longer able to do so.
• Stay connected to your network of friends, colleagues, and family from home. We gathered a list of resources/apps that allow you to chat with friends and family online, by a phone or video, and here is an article with resources and information on Free and Low Income Internet Plans for Families, Seniors, and Students.
• For other good information and resources for “grandfamilies” during the coronavirus pandemic, visit Generations United.

For 44 years, Iona’s been a respected and trusted nonprofit leader providing essential services for older adults and their families. Our vision is for a community that celebrates, values, respects, and protects every individual, especially the most vulnerable. No matter their income. No matter the address of their home.

In the last decade, the number of Washingtonians age 60 and older increased by nearly 15,000 to 117,223. More than 20,000 live in Wards 7 and 8 – the communities with the least access to services.

Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Type 2 Diabetes are on the rise nationally, and African Americans are twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia than Caucasian older adults. But right now, there is no adult day center in Southeast, DC to serve and support these older adults and families.

Residents with memory loss, physical frailty, or other chronic conditions are literally standing on street corners because they can no longer participate in the active senior programs that were the center of their community. They have nowhere else to go. And family caregivers are overwhelmed because they too don’t know where to turn for support.

Things are about to change.

Iona is opening a new adult day health center in Ward 8’s Congress Heights neighborhood in Southeast, DC, featuring the same high-quality program, resources, and leadership as our center in Tenleytown, Northwest, DC.

Soon, Southeast DC residents with Alzheimer’s or other chronic conditions will have a place to go in their community, where compassionate nurses and other staff will attend to their needs and monitor their health. Where they’ll get a nutritious lunch, and keep their minds stimulated with fun, engaging, and therapeutic activities like art therapy, musical performances, and field trips. Where they’ll make new friends and once again feel part of a community.

Their family members will have peace of mind and much-needed respite. They’ll get connection to professional support and others going through the same thing through support groups, education, and other programming. They’ll no longer be alone in their caregiving journey.

I know what a difference a quality adult day health center can make in the lives of older adults and their caregivers. For more than 30 years, we’ve provided individualized therapeutic, social, and health services for older adults living with dementia, Parkinson’s, and other chronic conditions in our Northwest location.

This approach not only provides older family members a reason to get up in the morning, enjoy activities, and make new friends, it also reduces depression and hospitalizations.

In turn, it allows family caregivers to go to work, handle personal business, or rest knowing their relative is safe and well cared for.

The need for such a center in Ward 8 is real. In the words of longtime resident Teresa A. Smith:

Most people I meet are able to do things for themselves. But I also meet folks with physical or cognitive challenges at our local senior wellness center. They may not be able to get to the bathroom in time or participate in activities. They end up sitting at home with nothing to do and eventually wither away. If they had a place to go where staff attended to their needs and monitored their health, where they got a good meal, kept their minds stimulated, and continued to feel part of the community, I know many seniors who would jump at the chance to be engaged again.”

Iona East will soon be this place for Southeast residents. In the coming months, a warren of offices in The Shops at Park Village will be transformed into the 9,000-square-foot light-filled space that will house Ward 8’s first adult day health center. Iona East is being developed in partnership with WC Smith, which has a long history of supporting the local community and building mixed-use developments in the District’s East End – from THEARC campus to Skyland Workforce Development Center to The Shops at Park Village.

I believe in a city where older adults and family caregivers get the help they need when they need it.

No waiting lists, no gaps in services, no disparities – no matter which side of the Anacostia River older adults live on.

By Sally S. White

With more than 30 years of experience, Sally White is a leader in the field of aging and champion of the rights of older adults and their caregivers. She has served as Iona’s Executive Director since 2009.

We are pleased to share that Iona Nurse Practitioner Fiona Druy has been awarded the 2019 American Association of Nurse Practitioners State Award for Excellence. This prestigious award, established in 1991, is given annually to a dedicated nurse practitioner in each state who demonstrates excellence in their area of clinical practice.

Here at Iona, we all know Fiona as a team player who has worked endlessly for the past 32 years to ensure a better life for older adults in the District.

Clinicians across the city’s lead agencies call Fiona for help with their most challenging cases, often related to issues of client capacity and the need for a guardianship intervention, or eviction prevention. Fiona is also the chair of the Protective Arrangement Evaluation Panel and is very active on the Elder Abuse Prevention Committee.

In addition to her work with the lead agencies, Fiona was the first Nurse Practitioner appointed as a court examiner for the DC Probate Court to determine functional and cognitive capacity of adults in guardianship proceedings. She has been appointed in more than 600 intervention proceedings, and she is also on the panel for orientation for new examiners.

Fiona has been an instructor in Gerontology courses at Catholic University and has been a preceptor for Graduate Nurse Program students there for the last 10 years.

In honor of this recognition, we asked our team to share what makes Fiona such a valuable part of our team and advocate in the community.

Here are their sentiments:

• Fiona, you are a fierce advocate for the older adult community at large, as well as the individual. You represent Iona in a most positive light.
• You are always able to parse out the details of the most complex cases and solve the mystery of what the situation is and what needs to be done. In another life, Fiona has often said she would have liked detective work, and she would have been good at it!
• Fiona, your respect for the individual person, your insight, and your willingness to always go the extra mile makes us so appreciative that you are a member of the Iona team.
• You are an endless wealth of wisdom and knowledge (medical, legal, ethical) and your constant support of each of the team members as they approach challenging cases is a great comfort to us. You are the voice of reason.
• My operating principle related to Fiona is if she tells me to do something, I do it.
• We feel that there is no problem that you cannot tackle. Give Fiona a task and it is done! In looking back on all the direst cases of clients living in terrible conditions-there is no job too messy or too dirty or laborious.
• We always can count on you to remain upbeat and positive.
• Fiona manages, with grace, to be a wonderful listener even if she has heard the same thing a hundred times.
• Fiona, you make people feel special and cared for. You are a true leader.
• One client shared how Fiona jumped into action to help her navigate financial challenges after the recession.

“At my low point, I told Fiona, ‘I shouldn’t have gotten into this mess.’ Her response made me feel better. She said: ‘This could have happened to my own mother.’ ou can read her whole story here.

Congratulations, Fiona! You deserve to be recognized for all you do.

May 6-May 12 is National Nurses Week, and we want to highlight our wonderful nurses here at Iona.

We’re so fortunate to have dedicated nurses who work with our Wellness & Arts Center participants daily, as well as nurses who connect older adults to resources and support they need in the community, and advocate for their needs. Iona’s nurses are truly invaluable to the work that we do.

Iona’s nurses:

• Emmanuel D.
• Conny O.
• Fiona D.
• Judy L.
• Sydney N.
• Gerry R.
• Dixcy B.
• Ellen F.
• Carol K.
• Lorraine O.

In honor of National Nurses Week, we asked staff and Iona participants to share what makes our Iona nurses so special. Read what they had to say below!

Comments from our team:

• “The nurses go above and beyond. The work they do is very difficult.”
• “The nurses are always there, even to help the staff out. Sometimes we need a Tylenol or an ice pack—they take care of us.”
• “The nurses are key to maintaining each person’s wellness in the Center.”
• “We have the best nurses—they are wonderful, marvelous, and hardworking.”
• “Emmanuel has built great relationships with the male participants—he has earned their trust.”
• “Conny will put on Michael Jackson music in the afternoon and sing and dance with the participants.”
• “I have so much respect for our nurses. They have chosen to dedicate their lives to the care of others.”

Comments from participants:

• “They are the finest people here.”
• “I can talk about my anxiety with the nurses—they help me.”
• “They always take my blood pressure and are very gentle.”
• “When I get sick, they make me feel better and take care of me.”
• “Conny is very nice and gives me medicine when I need it.”
• “One day when I was crying, Emmanuel told me a story to encourage me. I felt better.”

Thank you to all of our nurses for keeping our participants safe and smiling. We appreciate you!

Want to share your own words of thanks to our Iona nurses? Comment below!

As we think about the year ahead—and all of the lives that were touched in 2018— we are so grateful for you.

Knowing that Iona has your support inspires our staff and volunteers to do all we can to help keep our older neighbors safe, less alone and, often, less hungry. Thanks to your generosity and compassion, last year your commitment to Iona’s mission helped us to provide:

Basic Needs

393 older adults in the community benefited from our expert case management and counseling support.

244 older adults received 50,365 nutritious and well-balanced meals to their homes.

83 people with memory loss, intellectual disabilities, and/or physical frailty received 44,695 hours of care by participating in Iona’s award-winning Wellness & Arts Center, which offers weekday programs including art therapy and health support.

130 family caregivers benefited from respite and support.

Fitness & Creative Engagement

96 older adults stayed healthy and active through our fitness and wellness classes, increasing their strength and flexibility through dynamic classes taught by engaging professionals.

600 people attended an intergenerational book event, opera discussion, Meet-the-Artist receptions, and 10-year retrospective event, engaging with exceptional local artists who are over 60 years of age.

Connection & Support

3,852 calls to Iona’s Helpline from 2,445 people were answered by our expert staff who always take the time to listen and connect families to community resources at Iona and beyond.

134 people found solace, friendship, and new resources in 2,871 hours of our various support groups for older adults, caregivers, and family members.

1,523 family caregivers found information, respite, and education through direct care and support services.

145 older adults from diverse neighborhoods and backgrounds who enjoyed 7,799 meals and activities at the Active Wellness Program at St. Alban’s.

221 people benefited from our Take Charge/Age Well Academy classes which are for people nearing retirement who want to get the most out of the next decades of their lives.

All told, you ensured Iona could directly help 3,767 older adults and family caregivers in 2018.

Thank you for making these accomplishments possible in 2018. We’re excited to see all that we can do in 2019 with your continued partnership.