TOLEDO, Ohio — Three area organizations are working together to ensure older people living independently don't see their independence turn into isolation.
The Area Office on Aging, Mobile Meals of Toledo and the Madonna Homes apartment building in downtown Toledo have partnered to hopefully find a solution to that problem with a joint pilot program, Congregate Meals.
Mobile Meals provides hot meals to Madonna Homes residents three days a week, which, in turn, offers an opportunity to socialize, said Mobile Meals CEO Alison Foreman.
"Through the social connection of the volunteer who can be there for four or five minutes with them or the telephone reassurance calls that we do, this is a great way to have another opportunity to engage with seniors on another platform," Foreman said.
Once residents get their balanced meals, they sit together in the dining room and eat. Resident Janeise Fromm happily sat with friends on Wednesday to eat her meal.
"Sometimes I cannot stand at the stove to cook. (Congregate Meals) helps me with that and then also it helps me not isolate as much at my apartment," she said.
Fromm has lived at Madonna Homes for nearly 10 years and said it's not hard to make friends there. But, when you're in your apartment, it's just as easy to stay in and be alone.
Social isolation and loneliness "have become widespread problems in the United States, posing a serious threat to our mental and physical health," according to the CDC.
Research shows that both issues can affect older adults and adults living alone more than some other groups and can increase the risks of health issues like dementia, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and even early death, according to the CDC.
These findings are something that Rebecca Liebes, vice president of the Area Office on Aging's Government Relations, Nutrition and Health Division, is seeing locally.
"In this neighborhood, people live to be 62 years old," Liebes said of the Vistula Historic District. "Whereas four miles away in the DeVeaux neighborhood, people live to be 84 years old. There's a 22-year gap, so, we're trying to provide some social services that can fill the gap."
The program, funded by the healthy aging grant through the Lucas County Commissioners, has been running for a few weeks at Madonna Homes. Yet in the short time it's been going on, Madonna Homes' Service Coordinator Tyara King is seeing a change in residents.
"Just seeing them come down and enjoy the meal, that's what they talk about the most, what they like about it," King said. "Some will come down with their own little condiments for it, or whatever. But, they really enjoy the meal."
Fromm is glad the program started at her home and hopes other residential living spaces will soon follow for more seniors.
"I tend to withdraw a lot and just sit there at home. So, this helps me," Fromm said.
Liebes said the Area Office on Aging plans to continue expanding its meals project and will start having meals at the Northgate Apartments about a mile east of Madonna Homes in a few weeks.