How You Can Help Your Elderly Neighbors During The Lockdown

How you can help your elderly neighbors during the lockdown

You may think that the lockdown is testing your absolute limits, but you got to think about your elderly neighbors too. At least you can head to the store whenever you want (assuming you are picking up essentials). Your elderly neighbors? Nope. They are pretty much stuck inside until this whole thing blows over...which could be months and months away. Thankfully, there are ways you can volunteer to help them out.

Offer to collect their groceries for them (and maybe medication too)

Just as a note; if you are going to be picking up their medication, then you need authorization for them. The process will be dependent on where you are. So, you will look into that.

Groceries are dead simple, though. Just get a list of what the person wants and head on over to the grocery store. This is probably going to save the elderly a bit of cash, because companies are charging massive sums of cash for grocery deliveries nowadays, and a lot of them do not even have free slots for the groceries to be delivered.

Take their pets for a walk

Some elderly people are going to be walking their pets during a lockdown. Don’t let them do this. Every second they are outside is an extra second which they can be exposed to the virus. So, do it for them. If the pets need to be taken to the vet, then offer to do that too.

Get their phone number

Many of the elderly are sorely lacking social contact nowadays. Why not pick up the telephone and give them a call? Even a few minutes conversation is more than they will have heard in a while.

Live in a communal place? Clean up!

Chances are that there are no cleaning services happening right now. This means that you will need to put a little bit of effort into cleaning up the place. Wipe down communal surfaces with disinfecting wipes. Take out the trash (and ask the elderly people if they need theirs taken out), and just generally sweep up. A clean place is not only a happy place, but a place where the virus is unlikely to replicate.

How do you find elderly people to help? Well, you could always hand out a couple of flyers through local doors (don’t touch those flyers before washing your hands!). There are also a ton of Facebook groups and the like with people searching for a bit of help too. You may want to join them and see what you can do!

Remember; no matter what you do, absolutely try to minimize contact with the elderly. If you absolutely must talk to them face to face, then wash your hands first. Throw a bit of antibacterial lotion on there too. Absolutely wear a mask, and don’t take more than a couple of seconds with them. Do what you got to do and move on. This will minimize the risk of them being impacted by this disease, and it increases the chances of everything blowing over quickly.