New Partners Fighting Spread of COVID-19 Among Elderly
New Partners Fighting Spread of COVID-19 Among Elderly
What do a charity, a State Senator, an insurance company and medical students have in common? The answer is fighting the spread of COVID-19 among the elderly. New partnerships are doing that in Georgia. The Thanks Mom & Dad Fund, State Senator P.K. Martin, and medical students from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have joined forces to help Georgia’s seniors. 
Many senior service providers have noticed a troubling trend: older adults declining in-home care for fear of contracting COVID-19. This can worsen existing health conditions. Like others in the healthcare industry, in-home care providers had difficulty getting personal protective equipment.
After receiving a grant from Anthem Foundation, Thanks Mom & Dad Fund reached out to Senator P. K. Martin, a champion for senior issues. Sen. Martin immediately jumped in to help alongside medical students who started a group known as Medical Students for Masks-ATL. Together these partners were able to find vendors and help deliver personal protective equipment to frontline workers providing in-home care for seniors across the state.
In the Atlanta region, Sen. Martin delivered some of the first masks to the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services (CPACS).
“I am honored to protect Gwinnett County seniors by helping CPACS,” said Senator Martin. “When disasters strike, new partnerships like this help us take care of our neighbors and that’s my priority.”
In addition to their Atlanta effort, Thanks Mom & Dad Fund distributed another 7,000 masks and 14,000 gloves to Area Agencies on Aging throughout the state.
“We wanted to quickly respond to the risk of COVID-19 exposure for older adults,” said Maureen Kelly, President of Thanks Mom & Dad Fund. “All of the partners played a role by assembling quickly to help local areas across the state.”
Additional grants were made to LeadingAge Georgia for 4,000 meals in low-income senior housing facilities and to the Atlanta Regional Commission Area Agency on Aging for mental health services and reassurance calls.
