Combating social isolation during social distancing

Our Far From Alone initiative I shared earlier this week was born from our members' feedback. They’re looking for empathy for the loneliness and social isolation they’re experiencing and simple suggestions for staying connected, even while minimizing their physical contacts. One thousand six hundred people have visited FarFromAlone.com and several of you expressed gratitude for having resources, either for yourselves or for people you care for.

Since the pandemic began, more than 2,000 Humana nurses and other staff members get on the phone daily and reach out to our members. They’re coordinating care for their clinical and behavioral health needs, and they’re screening for social determinants of health. They’re also listening and offering a friendly voice for people to confide in.

I’d like to introduce you to one of our members we connected with – Theresa. Theresa lives alone and manages multiple chronic conditions, including lupus and anxiety. Before the current crisis, she was able to manage her conditions, getting medicine she needed for lupus and taking group SilverSneakers exercise classes. But as Theresa stays safe at home, she’s feeling more isolated from her community and anxious about going out to get food and medicine since she is immunocompromised.

When our Humana At Home team contacted Theresa, we made sure she knew about telehealth benefits – with waived copays – that allow her to connect with her therapist virtually. We also set up medicine delivery through Humana Pharmacy and supported Theresa finding ways to have food delivered directly to her home, helping ease her anxiety. To alleviate her social isolation, we discussed ways she can connect virtually to SilverSneakers and continue her exercise regimen at home.

People like Theresa are experiencing several challenges. It’s our responsibility as a health company to see our members as the unique people they are and tailor our work to what they need. Based on those needs, here are more resources we’ve deployed:

●     Reminding members of their SilverSneakers benefit, a health and fitness benefit designed for people with Medicare, so they can still exercise and stay connected to people while at home through the SilverSneakers on-demand video library of classes and workouts.

●     Helping people maintain a healthy mind and body at home. Our Virtual Neighborhood Center offers classes including cooking demos, soup can workouts, cloth mask crafting, and a virtual book club through Humana’s Facebook page. We're also offering virtual wellness classes via WebEx on topics ranging overcoming anxiety and preventing Alzheimer’s to lighter topics to help people stay health, like the do’s and don’ts of the Mediterranean diet.

●     Staying hyper-focused on combating social isolation as we reach out to our members and those in our local communities. Our employees who work at our Neighborhood Centers usually help community members better their health in person. Now, they’ve adjusted their work to meet the challenges of social distancing, staying in touch virtually and calling people who frequent our Neighborhood Centers. We know how important it is right now to hear a caring voice and know someone is there to help solve problems in a compassionate, easy manner.

Coronavirus has forced us to become more creative in the ways we connect with one another. And while the pandemic has limited us in many ways, it has demonstrated that caring for one another has no bounds.