Daily Progress - Marta Keane, CEO of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, said about 20% of the region’s population is over the age of 60 and more than 25% of those residents live alone.

“Although we’ve now learned every group is vulnerable, they’re the group that’s more vulnerable in terms of a more severe case [of COVID-19],” she said.

On March 16, JABA closed its office to in-person visitors and temporarily suspended operations at its Community Senior Centers. On March 19, it closed its Charlottesville adult care center.

“One of the risky factors for seniors is isolation,” Keane said. “It can cause physical as well as emotional issues with depression. So we were trying to balance keeping the centers open as long as it was safe, because we don’t want to be a nexus of transmission, but recognizing that isolating them too soon was not safe either.”

JABA is still offering its services, such as its Medicare and Affordable Care Act insurance counseling, over the phone to community members and has assisted community center members with getting shelf-stable meals.

“We’re doing keeping-in-touch calls with them, and we’ve put together packets of things that they can do at home that we’ve mailed out,” Keane said.

Thursday afternoon, Carleigh Showalter, manager of JABA’s Mary Williams Community Senior Center, led a game of bingo over a conference call line for center members.

“We’re trying to find creative ways to keep connecting with folks and have them feel connected, because I think connectedness is going to be the piece that even introverts are going to miss,” Showalter said.