HEALTH
Seniors Face Unique Challenges in COVID-19 Crisis
Queer older adults impacted by social isolation, food insecurity, health vulnerabilities
BY MATT TRACY
While Americans nationwide
have experienced
signifi cant
life changes during
the coronavirus era, LGBTQ seniors
have also been coping with
an array of unique hardships of
their own while also confronting
the elevated health risks they face
due to age-related co-morbidities.
The pandemic led to a spike in
food insecurity among seniors during
the earliest days of the crisis
and the drawn-out stay-at-home
guidelines have escalated feelings
of loneliness, underscoring the impact
the virus has had on a population
that is already marginalized.
“Of course food insecurity was
a problem for a lot of LGBT elders
prior to this and then this just exacerbated
it,” said Steven Wilkinson,
the senior director of programs
and services at Advocacy &
Services for LGBT Elders (SAGE),
which serves queer seniors in the
US and is headquartered in New
York City.
While seniors are at elevated
risk of severe coronavirus cases
or even death, there is also a signifi
cant share of queer seniors who
are also HIV-positive and immunecompromised.
SAGE clients who
are especially vulnerable have
avoided getting sick by refusing to
leave their homes throughout the
crisis, which presented new dilemmas:
Those who were accustomed
to eating meals at senior centers
could no longer do so and many
could not to simply order carry-out
or delivery food frequently as an
alternative.
During the early days of the
crisis SAGE handed out fi ve graband
go meals to their members every
week — two meals on Tuesday
and three meals on Thursday —
but the city Department for the Aging
(DFTA) stepped up and rolled
out a new delivery program at the
end of March: Instead of having to
leave their apartments and risk
infection, those who go to senior
centers and are 60 years or older
Out lesbian New Yorker Lujira Cooper enjoys spending time alone, but she is among many seniors who
are missing the chance for face-to-face contact.
get fi ve meals per week delivered
directly to their homes — though
some folks say they’ve had diffi culty
connecting with that option.
Wilkinson said SAGE started
preparing for the crisis three
weeks before the mid-March shelter
in-place order, and now, even
as the organization’s staff works
from home, the team has focused
its efforts on checking in with their
members, ensuring adequate food
delivery and services, continuing
classes and programs virtually,
and establishing ways that clients
can communicate with each other
through video chat or phone calls
in a broader effort to reduce social
isolation.
“Now that food is being addressed,
we’re dealing with people
who are feeling socially isolated,”
Wilkinson said. “The calls that
were fi ve minutes now can run
30 or 45 minutes because they’re
missing their friends at centers
and they’re missing just being social.”
To that end, dozens of SAGE’s
existing programs are continuing
on a remote-only basis, including
exercise classes, writing classes,
Spanish and English as a second
language, and support groups.
The social distancing requirements
that have bred loneliness
were implemented abruptly out of
SARAH GODOY BRITO
necessity. At senior living environments
such as Stonewall House, an
LGBTQ-friendly residential building
in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, that
is operated by SAGE, no guests are
allowed in the building, there are
no deliveries except to the front
desk, and SAGE staffers go doorto
door twice per week to check on
residents, hand out masks, and
distribute bags of food from local
pantries.
LGBTQ seniors who spoke to
Gay City News have echoed the
concerns of many of their cohorts.
Out lesbian native New Yorker Lujira
Cooper, a 73-year-old writer
and student — she is working on
her second bachelor’s degree and
already has a master’s degree —
lives alone in Manhattan and has
been receiving food deliveries. She
only goes out about a few times
per week for necessities and, like
others, she has felt the impact of
the crisis: Although she considers
herself to be more of a “hermit,” the
social isolation has become so profound
that she has found herself
yearning for more in-person interaction.
“I miss people,” said Cooper, who
has had to maintain social contact
with others on a virtual basis as of
late. “I miss talking, having faceto
face conversions, and I miss being
in my writing group. I just miss
being out and watching people. As
a writer, I like to watch people and
get ideas about creating characters.”
She added, “I like to stay in because
I like to stay in, not because
I have to stay in. It’s diffi cult to be
forced to stay in.”
Another out senior, 68-year-old
Richard Daniels, who lives in Manhattan
with his husband, Stanley
Goldberg, said the couple has also
experienced life changes during
the crisis. They have been trying to
get food deliveries from the DFTA,
but Daniels said “that never materialized.”
Daniels conveyed that
Goldberg requires a more complicated
level of care because he is
older.
“So I go to the store much more
than he does,” Daniels said.
But, like Cooper, the pair has
nonetheless remained engaged.
They recently attended a virtual
birthday party and participated in
a virtual Seder dinner, and Daniels
has maintained a busy schedule
participating in virtual programs
via SAGE, including support
groups, meditation groups, and
yoga classes.
Those who work with seniors
also have had to grapple with the
reality that not everyone can afford
the devices or internet connection
necessary for virtual socialization.
Other seniors also face barriers
because they might not be as
technologically-savvy as others,
preventing them from participating
in video chats.
SAGE is continuing to explore
ways to bring queer seniors together,
regardless of those issues.
Among those ideas include the
possibility of distributing devices
to clients who lack the equipment
to participate. Another way is to
foster communication by phone instead
of video conferencing.
“Some tend to call into groups,
so some support groups require
a lot of phone work with people
on the conference call,” Wilkinson
said. “At least they’re connecting
➤ COVID & LGBTQ SENIORS, continued on p.12
April 23 - May 6,8 2020 | GayCityNews.com
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