- Call them senior citizens, baby boomers or simply older adults, but the over 65 crowd is our topic for today's show.

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2019, it was estimated that there were about 73 million baby boomers in the United States.

On this episode, we'll take a closer look at some of the programs and services available to senior citizens in the Lehigh Valley.

We'll not only speak with experts in this field, but also speak with a longtime Valley resident who shares her secrets for staying young at heart.

Welcome to A Su Salud, Cheers to Good Health.

I'm your host, Genesis Ortega.

We're broadcasting from inside the PPL Public Media Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

My first guest is Erica Coyne, a licensed clinical social worker with St Luke's University Health Network.

Thank you for joining us.

- Sure.

Thank you so much for having me.

- Erica, let's start here.

What are some specialized needs facing our senior citizens in the Lehigh Valley?

- I think senior citizens everywhere face kind of a similar set of issues, whether that's managing chronic conditions, having cognitive changes or just the social and emotional changes that come with aging, making end of life decisions.

So working with a geriatrician or having a social worker can be really helpful to work through the changes that senior citizens everywhere are facing.

- At St Luke's Senior Care Associates are some of those needs being addressed?

- So usually we try to work together, the geriatrician and myself, to address all the needs of an older patient, so whether that is their medical history, the conditions that they're working with their primary care doctor on, but also specifically addressing their cognition, their needs at home, their safety, we try to address that all together.

- We have a large Spanish-speaking community here in the Lehigh Valley.

Are there bilingual services available as well?

- Yes, so we do have a provider here at our practice who speaks Spanish, so that is a great help and we also use interpretation services so when we're doing those cognitive screenings, we can do those in lots of different languages.

- From a cost perspective, are there any programs or services that are offered at no cost for seniors?

- So one of the referrals that we often make is to the home and community based services waiver program, so if seniors are deemed to be nursing facility clinically eligible and if they meet certain financial eligibility requirements, then they might be able to receive services like in-home care, get help with adult day services, cover the cost of these things that are so important for their day to day needs.

- Erica, tell us more about the older adult meal program.

- So this is something that St Luke's offered prior to Covid-19, and that would be a healthy, nutritious meal, something that's made fresh daily, only for 3.99, something that we offered at five of our campuses.

Certainly since Covid has happened, we haven't been able to hold these meals, but we're looking forward to holding them again in the future.

- Are there any other community outreach programs that you work with or recommend when it comes to providing services for seniors?

- So a big referral that I always make and I talk to families about is that every county has an area agency on aging.

So that's something that could be a quick Google search, the area agency on aging in your county and just call that phone number.

Their whole role is to give you information, refer you to and connect you to all of the services in your county as an older adult.

And you can also call that number if you're a loved one of an older adult looking to help them get connected.

- Really good point.

We're actually going to be speaking with them a little bit later on in the show.

So I'm glad that you brought them up.

Let's pivot a little bit.

I want to ask you, as a clinical social worker, what are you hearing from the community as far as the needs of senior citizens and are they being met?

- So a lot of our patients are diagnosed with dementia.

And so not only our patients, but also their family members are looking for meal services, home care agencies, transportation.

They might even be looking to explore nursing facilities or assisted living facilities.

There's so many great resources in the Lehigh Valley for older adults.

It's just a matter of, like I said, getting seniors connected to what's out there.

So that's why working with a geriatrician, a social worker, or even calling your county area agency on aging, that is what's going to get you connected and make sure that those needs are met.

- Now, that's for senior citizens.

What about caregivers?

Are there any services available to those who are giving care to a loved one?

- Definitely.

So that's something that I really love talking about.

It's a huge, huge part of a patient's care to make sure that their caregivers' needs are met also.

A lot of caregivers experience depression, experience caregiver burnout.

And having support for a caregiver is a really, really important part of care in general.

So the Alzheimer's Association offers monthly caregiver support groups for anyone who has a family member or someone they're caring for with memory difficulty.

I facilitate a monthly group here at St Luke's - of course, we're meeting virtually now due to Covid.

But we meet once a month.

We've got a morning group and an evening group.

Anybody is welcome to jump on at any time.

We're meeting on Zoom.

And in that group, we just kind of talk about what it's like to be a caregiver.

Tips, tricks, resource sharing.

Just lean on each other and kind of learn more about all the ins and outs of being a caregiver.

- And caregiver burnout is something that I hear more and more as we continue to progress further along into the pandemic, especially one year in.

And so let me ask you this.

I mean, since you facilitate some of these programs, what are just a couple of tips that you give to caregivers during these sessions?

- I mean, I think a huge thing is always looking back and reflecting on yourself, do you feel that your own needs are being met, starting with your most basic needs?

Are you getting a good night's sleep as much as possible?

Are you eating healthy meals?

Are you getting time to yourself?

Are you getting to your own doctors appointments?

Because caregiving can really have an impact on your own physical health.

So making sure that your basic needs are met is a huge start.

And then beyond that, also, are you able to have your leisure activities?

Are you able to leave the house and feel that your loved one is safe?

If something were to happen to you, do you have a backup plan, somebody who could step in and help if you really needed a break?

So those are some of the things that we try to assess each month.

Do we feel like we have a good support team for ourselves as caregivers?

And if not, how can we put that in place?

- And I'm sure the support group in and of itself is a help because sometimes you just need somebody to talk to and let them know what you're going through and possibly have somebody that is going through the same thing.

That can sympathize with you.

- Absolutely.

In our groups, we have some tears, some laughter, and we just enjoy taking that time.

Whether it's just an hour a month, I think taking that time to lean on each other, like I said, is just a nice support.

- What about transportation for senior citizens that are looking to get to and from doctor's appointments?

Are there any resources available for that?

- So a couple examples would be ITN or LANta Van and these are door to door transportation services, usually with fairly affordable rates.

The most important thing is just checking out what they can offer for you.

So ITN, I know, is a great example that they offer the Rhodes scholarship program.

It's just a matter of picking up the phone and calling to try to say, here's where my loved one is or here's where I am myself as a senior.

What can you do to be able to offer me reasonable transportation?

And they can help transport patients where they need to go.

So a big example is medical appointments.

If you don't have a vehicle or if you don't have your license to drive, it's really important to be able to identify something like ITN or LANta Van services to be able to maintain those appointments and stay in good health.

- Wonderful.

How can people get in touch to see if they're eligible for some of these services?

- Sure.

So just giving a call to their main number at ITN or LANta Van.

Generally anybody who answers the phone will give you a quick answer about sending you information by mail.

For a lot of seniors, it's not easy to get onto the computer and use the Internet or to navigate through a website.

So a great thing about these services is that they will mail you a packet of information, especially if you request just some brochures or the application to be mailed to you.

They'll send it right out.

- And it truly really is important work.

I know when I talk to my parents all the time, they say, who do I call for resources?

You hit on a lot of really good points.

Thank you for the work that you're doing.

I appreciate your time with us today.

- Sure.

Thanks again.

- My next guest is Clayton Reed Jr, the executive director of the Office of Aging and Adult Services of Lehigh County.

Thanks for joining us today, Clayton.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Let's start here.

Tell us more about the mission of your office as it relates to senior citizens.

- Yeah, our officer's mission is really to help individuals that are 60 and over - that's kind of a federal guideline because we get federal money for that - to stay as independent as they can in the community.

And we have a whole array of services to try to assist those individuals with that mission.

- What would you say are some of the key or fundamental services that you offer for senior citizens?

- Sure.

We offer senior centers.

We have like 12 different ones in the county where people can come and break social isolation and get a meal.

During the pandemic, we are still sending meals out of them.

We also have home delivered meals that we provide for individuals that are homebound.

We also have in-home services for people that need personal care, getting dressed, and there's adult day care.

Those are probably a lot of the key components to our, I think, our programs.

- When it comes to food, would you say that the need is more so now because of the pandemic hitting hard more?

- Yes, our food budget has gone up tremendously and the need has just been a lot more during the pandemic.

We implemented some emergency meals.

We also implemented a driver to go around and drives people shelf stable meals.

And actually the people that went to the senior centers, we probably doubled the amount of meals that we've given to those that would normally go in person to a senior center.

- That's wonderful.

I mean, it's great that the county is providing those services and they're free or low cost.

- Yeah, the meals are definitely free.

The other in-home services really are a sliding scale cost share system where it starts at zero and works the whole way up to 100%.

We look at families incomes in those situations.

- Let's talk about the caregiver support program.

What's that about?

- Sure.

That's a program to support people that are caregiving in the community.

It's really designed around the caregivers' needs to help them to realize that they need to take a break and take care of themselves to be able to caregive for a loved one.

And it's a reimbursement program that is really designed to help kinda let them have more choice.

They can hire their neighbor.

They can get meals, they can pay for supplies.

There's a whole bunch of different things that they can do through that program.

It's a really nice program for the individuals that qualify.

- Now, I imagine it's extremely more beneficial now.

Again, with the pandemic and the stay at home orders, are you seeing more of an increased need for that?

- Yes.

Yeah, there's... and it's been challenging.

There's more need and it's really challenging because it's really hard for some of the home health agencies to staff some of the services that we need.

And so the family caregiver program's really good for that, because you can kind of hire your neighbor and other people.

So it kind of helps in that way.

- How do you work around some of those issues when it comes to just increased need?

- So we try to contact our providers that we use and we contract with, we've actually had to add a couple of providers during this time frame because of some of the staffing issues.

And we really work with older adults and try to triage as much as we can and get people the services they need.

It is very challenging.

And we have caseworkers that do that.

And they work individually with families and the older adults.

- What about your Spanish speaking families?

Are there resources available in Spanish?

- Yeah, we actually, probably I'd say about 35% of our staff is bilingual at this point in time and meaning most of them speak Spanish and English.

And we also have all our flyers and different things in various languages to make sure that we can communicate with anybody with a different language than English.

And, you know, most of the home healthcare companies in this area, in the Allentown area do have bilingual staff that will actually help serve those individuals too.

- Now tell me this.

What's the difference...?

I understand you have senior citizen centers and also adult day centers.

Is there a difference between the two?

- Yeah, there is.

So senior centers are more independent individuals that can come.

It's more they have activities, different things, break social isolation and they give them a congregate meal.

At the adult day centers it's more for people that have cognitive issues, cognitive impairment.

There's more programming around that and that's more the clientele.

And those are really good in that when a family may be having trouble with their loved one with Alzheimer's or with some type of cognitive impairment, they're staying up a lot at night, or they have to work, they can drop them off during the day care during the day, get activities, get them a meal, maybe get them bathed at the center.

And it also helps a lot of times with the individual getting tired and actually sleeping better after they go through that kind of activity.

And then the loved one can come home and take care of them at night.

- And let me ask you this.

How has that social interaction been impacted by the pandemic at these centers?

- At the centers?

Yeah, during most of it, I think they really shut down till probably a couple of months ago.

It is really impacting the adult daycare centers because it's just so hard to staff these situations.

And there is also a fear for people to go out and be contacted by other individuals that are not around on a normal basis.

So that really has been impacted by the pandemic.

- Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

I understand that you also are helping to get vaccines out to senior citizens.

Can you talk to us more about that?

- Yes.

So what we're doing is we really partnered with Lehigh Valley Health Network mobile vaccination team to try to identify some sites where we can link together, partner with them or partner with other individual agencies to get seniors and others to those clinics that are having really trouble getting online and signing up.

We're actually taking phone calls at our office and taking individuals' names down and we'll return calls when we get vaccination sites up and running.

So that's one of the things that our goals is over the next couple of months to really try to help get people vaccinated in the community that are having difficulties with it.

- That's wonderful.

I want to get back to the services that the county provides because I understand that you also offer a prescription discount plan.

Can you tell me more about that?

- Yeah, the county has a card that if you if you get it from us, it's 20% off the pharmacy's regular price of prescription.

So you can take that to any pharmacy and you should get it straight off the top.

A 20% discount.

It's really nice for individuals.

You don't have to worry about income with this particular program.

There are other programs out there that can help people that are more income based, that can help, like the PACE program.

But this program is for anybody, whatever their income level is, they can use this at any pharmacy.

- How do people get in touch with your office to find out if they're eligible for this?

- So I would definitely call the county offices here to get our generalized intake, which is 610-782-3200, and there are people that answer phone calls and if you have questions, they'll take an intake and our staff will get back in touch with those individuals to try to answer questions, to try to get you on programs.

Whatever it is that you need, we really try to steer people in the right direction.

- Now we're running out of time but I do want to end on this note.

Tell us more about the Unsung Heroes program.

- Sure.

So in a lot... A lot of area agencies on aging were started with an act called the Older Americans Act in 1965.

And part of that act is they celebrate older Americans, which is 60 and over, and that month that we celebrate, that is in May.

And so the way Lehigh County has done that traditionally over 20 years is Unsung Heroes.

And unsung heroes are those individuals that are 60 and over that really volunteer in our community.

We really like to emphasize all the positives that we do.

And we've done this for over 20 years.

And it's such a great event.

And the number of people that we've honored and see just astounds me every year that I do them.

The stories that we read about them.

- That's wonderful.

I really appreciate the time and all the work that you're doing for our senior citizens in Lehigh County.

Thanks for joining us today.

- All right.

Thank you very much.

- Before I introduce my next guest, I want to take a few minutes to share my recent visit last month to the Hispanic center of the Lehigh Valley, the home of the Basilio Huertas senior center.

Let's take a look.

Isolation, language barriers and lack of social interaction are just some of the issues faced by senior citizens in the Hispanic community.

Here at the Basilio Huertas senior center at Hispanic Center, Lehigh Valley, it was doing its best to combat these issues prior to the pandemic.

I caught up with Victoria Montero, the executive director here at the Hispanic Center, to talk about the services that they offer for seniors now and before the pandemic.

- The Basilio Huertas senior center is our senior center at the Hispanic program, is one of the most dynamic programs that we have at the center.

The center was created with the idea of providing a space for our seniors to have, you know, get together, celebrate their culture, eat healthy, have fun.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, they're not here physically.

But we have been in contact with every single of our seniors enrolled in the program.

We have continued to deliver food packages twice a month to their home.

So we have been providing also case management to them, helping them complete the census 2020.

Today, we have several of them coming in to get vaccinated and we're excited to continue having them come back in our facility once it's safe to have them back in our facility.

We're also in the process of rolling out a grant that we received from Two Rivers Wellness Foundation, where we're going to be providing technology to do virtual programming with our seniors from their homes.

Our seniors also have access to our food pantry program.

They also have access to services that we have here in our building, Pinebrook Family Answers that provides mental health services.

And once they're enrolling our program, we connect them to other resources within our center and also the community.

We are following the health and safety guidance of the state and our seniors are one of the risk populations for Covid-19 so we want to make sure when we reopen, we are ready for them and that we are taking everything precaution to keep them healthy.

- If anyone wants to get in touch with you to find out more about the center, where can they call?

- They can call the Hispanic Center or email me at Victoria Montero@HCLV.org.

- My next guest is proving that age is nothing more than a number.

Her name is Barb Assisi and she's 84 years young.

Thanks for joining us today, Barb.

- Thank you for having me.

- Let's start with you and your family.

What does your family dynamic look like?

- I have three sons, I have six grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

- Oh, that's wonderful.

I want to talk to you about your retirement.

So I understand that you were the first female bus driver to retire from LANta.

What was that like?

- Do you have enough time for that?

It was very interesting job.

I always loved driving.

I got into LANta, drove for 20 years and it was hard at first because of being with all the men.

But after a year or two, they got to know me and we became a family And I got 20 years and I left LANta, stayed home for three months, didn't like being retired too much and... ..got hired by the school district as a sub in custodian work.

For 12 years.

I left, I retired then at the age of 78.

- Nice.

So how is retirement for you now?

How are you spending your days?

- Oh, it's fine.

Just being busy, helping a couple of people get to therapy during the week and keeping up with my home, my outside with the birds and the squirrels and the animals and taking the kids down to Franklin Institute, going to Atlantic City- that's about the size of it.

- That sounds like a great retirement, Barb.

I also want to touch upon Savvy Seniors of Easton.

Prior to the pandemic, you were a member.

What was that like?

- The savvy seniors are a group of women that... We did bus trips.

We would go to the theaters in Lancaster, New York, and also the casinos.

And that was about what that was all about.

- What about Silver Sneakers?

I understand that's a nationwide program.

Tell me about that.

- That's fun.

I got involved with that about a year, about two years ago.

Go over to the gym and, you know, you do the bikes, the treadmills, weight lifting, stairs.

It's a good half hour workout.

Sometimes I make it to half hour, sometimes only 20 minutes.

But I do ride a bike around the neighborhood also.

And I do the trails.

- From a social perspective, is it a great place to make friends?

- Yes, it is.

A lot of people... You're talking about Silver Sneakers?

- Yes.

- Yes, it is.

Absolutely.

Like I said... Certain rooms people do keep to themselves, but a lot of times you'll say hi to somebody and get into the conversation.

Yes, it is.

It's a very nice place to join.

- Now you're in excellent health.

On top of Silver Sneakers, what else do you attribute your excellent health to?

- Dad and Mom.

I guess to good genes, and hard work, just keeping busy.

Doing housecleaning.

Now that I'm at this age, I do snowblowing, I did all my driveways.

The boys always say wait till we get home from work, but I've had a snowblower for the last seven years, I had no problems of getting it started and just that type of activities.

Of course, the kids come on weekends, on a Sunday, we go out the backyard and we play a little bit of softball also.

- Let me tell you, I have a bucket list and on my bucket list is to retire and spend it somewhat like you are doing yourself.

But talk to me about your bucket list.

What's on that?

- Well, the first one was this past summer, this past year, I wanted to walk around Mountain Lake.

Mountain Lake, New Jersey.

And that's like two and a quarter mile circumference.

And I got a neighbor of mine, she's 12 years younger than me, she said she would do it.

We started at 4:30 in the afternoon, got back to the car at exactly 5:30, took one hour to do two and a quarter miles.

I did kayaking for the first time in 2019, which was my first time.

I loved it.

That was in Belize, down in the Caribbean.

And then of course we were walking on a dock and I had a zip line that goes off the dock into the water.

Not much of a swimmer, but there was a lot of people around me at the time and I did it.

It was 30 feet off the dock, over across the water, and then you dropped into the water.

- So you certainly have a positive approach on living your life every day.

Is there any advice or thoughts that you have to share with other people?

- Like eating and what you eat, you know, and exercising, keep in check with your doctor.

I do a physical once a year.

I take no medications.

I'll take an antibiotic if I need to, if I get a very bad cold or whatever.

I try to stay away from processed foods.

I drink a couple of glasses of wine a week, dark wine, and socially be with a great group of girls.

And we do a lot together.

Tonight, I'm going to a wine dinner at the one of the restaurants here in Palmer Township and it'll be six of us going.

- That's incredible.

- And then usually we come back to my place, my place usually is the clubhouse.

- And listen, when we talk about a healthy lifestyle, that's really what it's all about.

But at the heart of it, it's friendships too - being able to laugh and being able to enjoy other people's company.

- I thank God, thank the Lord, that the group and my family and my friends, they're here for me, for everything.

I mean, I don't need to...

If I say I'm not up to something, I feel that, "Are you coming down with something?"

They're at my house right away.

Food's coming in the house, food is coming in the house.

But I'll tell you what it is.

Social, socializing is the main ingredient.

- Well, I certainly agree with that.

If there's one thing that I learned today it's to make sure that my social circle is always tapped into and I have that network at my disposal.

Barb, certainly an inspiration to look up to.

I wish you well in your retirement, and I hope that you cross off those additional items on your bucket list.

- Thank you very much for this.

Absolutely.

- Thanks again.

- Stay safe.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

I want to thank our St Luke's University Health Network expert Erica Coyne and our other guests, Clayton Reed and Barb Assisi for being with us today.

And thank you for tuning in.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

If there's a medical subject you'd like for us to cover, send me a message on social media, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram.

Plus, you can tune in to hear more of my reporting on 91.3 FM, WLVR News, your local NPR News source all day every day.

I'm Genesis Ortega and from all of us here at Lehigh Valley Public Media, stay safe, be healthy and cheers to your health.