DOWNEY – While we cannot replace the value of face-to face interactions, we can find new ways to stay connected.

Especially during these times, simple acts of kindness like a smile, a phone call, or offering praise reminds us that we are on this journey together. We can still reach out to others with love. We can take this opportunity to reconnect with friends, start a new hobby, or return to activities that brought us joy in the past.

At a time when protecting our physical health requires extended periods of isolation, we need to be mindful of our mental health: it is crucial to continue to engage in social and work activities to stay connected with others. fortunately, remote video calling technologies (e.g., FaceTime, Zoom) are available for us to keep connected.

Despite closed gyms and other wellness service spaces, there are many other ways to remain active. To assist, the Don Knabe Wellness Center at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center has created a virtual wellness center to provide access to classes and support groups.

Established in 2011 with support from LA CARE, the Don Knabe Wellness Center has provided comprehensive educational and fitness level programs, including peer support groups for individuals with disability, their families, community, and staff.

The Don Knabe Wellness Center closed its physical location on March 13, 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Closure of the physical location did not stop the innovative and creative staff in providing services to our community. Immediately, our service offerings pivoted to a virtual wellness paradigm.

Immediate development of a virtual wellness infrastructure was started. Support groups for many of Rancho’s former patients were the first to transition to a virtual space.

Robert Rohan, Peer Mentor Supervisor II, enthusiastically took on the challenge of developing a system to provide virtual support groups via Zoom. He coordinated with the different Peer Mentor support group facilitators to determine potential participants and a system to help them adapt to using Zoom, attending and facilitating the groups.

Keeping in mind that many of the peer mentor facilitators and participants are recovering from a stroke or acquired brain injury and may have limited experience and access to technology. Robert never waived from his resolve that we could make it happen.

At the inception of the Rancho Virtual Wellness, we offer the following Virtual Support Groups: Covid Recovery, Adult Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, Stroke, Aphasia, Women’s, Driving, and Epilepsy. The majority of our support groups are offered in both English and Spanish and are free to our Downey community.

The pivot to an all-virtual platform was not an easy task. Spencer Toledo, employee of Rancho Research Institute which operates the Don Knabe Wellness Center, took the primary role in the development of the website and Zoom customization to fit the virtual services and program’s specific needs.

He has been an integral part of the institute’s movement towards creating a more robust digital platform for research and program services. His major contribution has been in designing and streamlining the Don Knabe Wellness Center’s web presence to optimize the utilization of virtual services for members during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spencer continues to explore new avenues for broadening the Wellness Center’s digital reach with the goal of providing the best possible wellness experience for the Rancho and Downey community.

Highlighting how the Rancho Virtual Wellness Center is continually serving our community, we spoke to a member, 37-year-old Downey residence, Joeven Finnell.

Joevon has been through so much uncertainty and has had housing, food, and healthcare access insecurities throughout his life. Fortunately, he was reunited with his foster parent, Al. Al was able to secure healthcare access for Joevon at Rancho, where Joevon began receiving therapies.

Just before the pandemic, Joevon signed up for the Don Knabe Wellness Center membership. When the Wellness Center closed, his primary physical therapist, Tobin, reached out to the Wellness Center Program Director, Sonja Sonja Kiseljak Dusenbury. This is when Joevon started the virtual personal sessions with a Wellness Rehabilitation Technician, Cindy Gutierrez.

Because of the generous support from the Downey Kiwanis Foundation, as a Downey resident, Joevon qualified for a scholarship which covered his virtual personal sessions.

Joevon described the impact of the virtual sessions on his life as “exciting” and “kind of like having a personal trainer at a gym.” He felt that exercising with Cindy gave him the ability to walk through the exercises step by step and helped him not to focus on the pandemic.

His foster parent Al reflected that if it were not for the virtual sessions, Joevon would have been much further behind in his recovery. Al added that Cindy was able to provide comfort to Joevon, to increase his confidence to become more independent with his activities. “This has been a blessing,” he added at the end.

Cindy Gutierrez has been a long-time Don Knabe Wellness Center employee who showed flexibility and grace during the transition from in-person to virtual services - continuing the wellness sessions with clients via Zoom calls while also taking up a heavily involved role as a research assistant in a recently launched pilot study focused on women’s mental health and quality of life.

She has also taken over multiple Virtual Support Groups and is part of a small team assembling face shields that are distributed to medical care workers throughout the Los Angeles county.

Director Sonja Kiseljak Dusenbury shares that “It has always been a goal to have virtual space for wellness offerings and this pandemic event made this a possibility.” The Rancho Virtual Wellness services are growing, and we plan to continue those services even after we re-open the physical location for in-person services.

Currently we are offering scholarships to Downey residents and persons with Spinal Cord Injury for our Virtual Wellness Services.

To learn how to sign up and access the Rancho Virtual Wellness, please visit our website www.RLAFit.com, email rlawellness@dhs.lacounty.gov, call (562) 385-6600, or text (562) 396-5538.

Philip S. Requejo is chief executive officer of the Rancho Research Institute.