DOWNEY — Just days after the Los Angeles County Department of Health issued its “Stay at Home” order to slow the spread of COVID-19, the City of Downey instituted proactive measures to aid seniors living alone—the Senior Wellness Check Program.

Since mid-March, city staff at the Department of Parks and Recreation have been making weekly phone calls and visits to seniors known to be living alone and/or unable to leave the house. 

“If we don’t hear from somebody for a week’s period,” explains Jason Chacon, Parks and Recreation Manager, “they go on to our actual home visit wellness check, where we send staff out to their house to check on them.”  Staff members who visit a home leave notices and talk to neighbors if no one answers. 

“I personally did one call,” recounts Chacon, “where her neighbor was a police officer and he said, ‘Shirley went with her daughter. They live in another city, and we know she’s okay.’”

If staff are still unable to make contact or acquire information, Chacon says, “We forward those names over to our police department and the Downey PD will go actually do a more formal wellness check.”

The swift implementation of Downey’s Wellness Check Program was possible because of the Senior Congregate Lunch Program already in place at the Barbara J. Riley Community and Senior Center. 

For many seniors, daily lunch at the Riley center was an important social event as well as an affordable meal. Modest donations, usually under $2, were suggested, not mandatory. 

When the center closed, to comply with emergency procedures limiting social contact, city staff knew that social isolation would pose serious risks for many homebound seniors.

“Our city manager [Gilbert Livas] asked us to come up with a system for us to be able to check on our seniors,” says Chacon. 

Working closely with the non-profit agency that delivers the daily meals, Human Services Association (HSA), city staff compiled a database of all seniors who may have participated in the lunch program at any time in the past.

“We started a phone bank of roughly about 380 seniors,” says Chacon, “and we would call them once or twice a week, depending on how we could get through the list, and just kind of check on them, their well-being, how are they, did they need anything.”

After the first round of wellness checks by phone, Chacon says 38 homes required a visit because no one answered.

“People don’t answer for a variety of reasons,” explains Chacon. “Sometimes phone numbers might be wrong, sometimes they can’t get to the phone in time and don’t check their voicemail.”  

Notices left by these visits from city workers say, “The City of Downey stopped by to check on you today. Please give us a call to let us know you are doing ok.”

When the home visits were completed, Chacon says the number of people unaccounted for was reduced to 28. By the next round of home visits, the number of unaccounted residents dropped to 18. 

Chacon says they try to make contact by phone at least once a week with seniors on the list, adding, “Usually we’re able to get through it twice.” 

Seniors can register themselves for the Wellness Check Program by calling Downey’s Parks and Recreation Department at (562) 904-7238.

People can also call the city and request that someone they know be added for a wellness check.

“We’ve gotten phone calls from people who want us to check on a relative,“ says Chacon. “Maybe they don’t even live in the city but a relative does. So we add those people to our check-up program.”

Senior Lunch Program

Even though the Riley center is now closed to the public, the city lunch program for seniors is continuing, but with some changes. 

HSA, which prepares and delivers the lunches, is a private, non-profit organization that partners with 20 local cities in LA County to provide daily meals for seniors. Funding for the popular program is a combination of city contracts, grants, and voluntary (not mandatory) donations of up to $2.00 from each client.

“On a normal basis, without this crisis,” says Darren Dunaway, HSA Director, “we’re doing hot meals every single day at the Downey senior center.”

Under a county directive to limit contact and exposure during the pandemic, the new procedure precludes daily hot meals.

Instead, HSA is now preparing and delivering frozen meals to the Riley center twice a week that can be picked up and taken home by qualifying seniors on Mondays and Thursdays, between 11-11:30 a.m. Known as Grab-and-Go, this program allows each client to pick up four meals at a time. 

Seniors who want to sign up for the lunch program must call the city before noon on Friday to pick up the meals on Monday, and before noon on Wednesday to pick up meals on Thursday. The city number is (562) 862-9571.

Dunaway says this congregate meal program is currently serving 86 clients a week in Downey alone. Per county guidelines, a voluntary donation is no longer mentioned.

The procedure for HSA home-delivered meals has also been modified from daily hot meals to the delivery once a week of 7-10 frozen meals. 

“We don’t like doing that normally,” explains Dunaway, “because we like to check on people every day, but it’s a county directive that they’re trying to limit contact and exposure, so they mandate that we move to that system.”  HSA is currently serving 69 home-bound seniors.

This cessation of daily contact during meal deliveries was also a factor in Downey’s decision to implement its Senior Wellness Check Program.

The requirement for home-delivered meals, says Dunaway, is that they be 60 or older, and have the need.

“We ask for a doctor’s note,” says Dunaway, “but there’s no income requirement. It’s just 60 and over and be homebound for some reason.” 

Calls for food assistance have increased during the expanding health crisis.

Dunaway reports people calling to say, “I’ve got a health condition and I don’t want to go out,” or “They told me to stay home.”

Regarding HSA’s total program throughout LA County, Dunaway calculated, “We’ve had roughly 2,000 brand new clients that we never served before call us. Whatever the reason, most people are just afraid.”

Based on recent conversations with county officials, Dunaway estimates that the current meal program for seniors will continue for a while.

“We’re probably going to be doing this until September, at least,” he says.

HSA’s home-delivery program, which operates in partnership with local cities, is not to be confused with the well-known volunteer services of Meals on Wheels.

“Our program is partially government-funded,” Dunaway says. “We use all-staff.”  

New county guidelines during the pandemic now restrict HSA from suggesting donations for the meals. This is impacting HSA’s budget.

“In general it [a donation] was a little over a dollar a meal,” says Dunaway. “My agency is doing about 20,000 meals a week, so that’s a huge hit for us.”

Dunaway urges people who are interested in supporting food services for the needy to visit the Human Services Association website at www.hsala.org or call their number at (562) 806-5400.

HSA headquarters is in Bell Gardens, where it was founded in 1940 as an outreach effort by the Presbyterian Church. Its services are non-sectarian.

For further information about services in Downey, and updates about emergency restrictions, residents can visit the city website at www.downeyca.org.