Partnering to Meet the Social and Emotional Needs of Greater Lowell During COVID

By Kathy Register

As local nonprofits began reporting their vulnerable clients were suffering ill effects from mandated isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) responded by awarding a series of grants to help address social- and emotional-health issues.

In March, when COVID-19 hit, the children and adults with disabilities at Concord’s Minute Man Arc for Human Services, and Seven Hills Pediatric Center in Groton, were suddenly cut off from family and friends. Both nonprofits received GLCF grants to purchase iPads to enable their clients to communicate with loved ones and outside professionals. 

And thanks to another GLCF grant, Strongwater Farm Therapeutic Equestrian Center in Tewksbury revived its Visiting Program, which brings therapy horses to patients in long-term care and hospice facilities.

“The pandemic’s required social isolation and resulting loneliness have left our community with potentially serious mental- and physical-health consequences,” said Jay Linnehan, GLCF President & CEO. “Funding nonprofits’ innovative methods to connect clients with friends, family, health-care providers, and even remote social services, provides much needed emotional support during this difficult time.”

GLCF helped Minute Man Arc for Human Services (MMAHS) purchase 25 iPads that were distributed to clients living in eight group homes, according to Stephanie Parish, Chief Development Officer.

MMAHS provides lifelong care to 850 children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities in Bedford, Carlisle, Concord and Littleton, and the surrounding area.

“We’re very big on community inclusion and activities such as working and volunteering,” said Parish. “Lockdown has been a bitter pill for our clients. It’s very isolating to be at home.”

Prior to COVID, she explained, clients living in group homes would come to the MMAHS program site in Concord five days a week to receive physical therapy, attend classes and recreational activities, or travel to job sites.

“We had to curtail all those in-person services in mid-March,” said Parish. “Very quickly we rearranged our classes to an online format, but it became apparent that the technology in our group homes was insufficient for day-long programming.”

Some group homes have as many as seven adults living there, Parish explained, so trying to crowd everyone around one tablet just wasn’t working. “This grant helped us to immediately expand and improve our programs. Our clients are now Zooming on their iPads.”

MMAHS provides virtual programs like educational classes, yoga and aerobics, plus recreational activities like bingo and — everyone’s favorite – musical sing-a-longs, said Parish. “Now, when they bring up a class on their iPads, they can see their friends again. It has been really critical to our clients’ well being.”

Children living at Seven Hills Pediatric Center have also benefitted from a GLCF grant to purchase five iPads, plus five tall standers to hold the devices, according to Elizabeth Vittum, Assistant Vice President of Development for the Seven Hills Foundation.

Seven Hills Pediatric Center in Groton received a GLCF COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund grant to address isolation during the pandemic. SHPC staff member, Marta helps connect SHPC resident to his family using iPad w/stand.

An 83-bed skilled nursing center in Groton, Seven Hills serves profoundly disabled and medically complex children, explained Vittum. “All our residents are non-ambulatory, the majority range in age from infancy up to 22, and all are under the cognitive age of 24 months.”

In March, when COVID-19 began spreading, the facility had to completely lock down, she said. Families were not allowed to visit, and children had to remain in their rooms and on their floors.

“That not only impacted our residents’ emotional health, but added to the trauma of families who suddenly couldn’t visit their children,” explained Monica Kleeman, Seven Hills’ Director of Education. “Now, we’re using iPads to connect children with their families again. We’re doing 125 FaceTime calls per week.”

The iPads have become a huge part of Seven Hills’ residents’ lives, said Kleeman, and the staff is getting more and more creative about how to use the devices. For example, they recently added an iPad to a traveling coffee cart set up to deliver snacks and coffee to staff in their offices.

“Now we’re doing virtual visits with our coffee deliveries,” said Kleeman. “We put one iPad in the room with a resident, and another iPad on the coffee cart. The children in the rooms can interact with and see staff while the cart makes its rounds.” They are also increasingly using iPads for resident-to-resident visits, so the children can see their friends, she said.

“We’ve all learned so much and embrace technology so much more now,” said Vittum. “These iPads have really changed the way we run our programs.’’

Strongwater Farm Therapeutic Equestrian Center in Tewksbury, was a recent recipient of a GLCF COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund grant to purchase a horse trailer, the nonprofit plans to take its popular equine activities and therapies on the road.  A hospice patient works with Peaches, the therapy pony and instructor Kassandra. 

Strongwater Farm Therapeutic Equestrian Center’s programs have also benefitted from its GLCF grant. Serving the special-needs community in northeastern Massachusetts, Strongwater provides professionally supervised equine-assisted activities and therapies at its Tewksbury facility, according to Executive Director Maria Antonioni. 

By using its grant to buy a new horse trailer, the nonprofit plans to take its popular equine activities and therapies on the road — once the pandemic recedes.

“Our Visiting Program grew out of our previous work at Tewksbury Hospital,” Antonioni explained. “We were taking therapy horses to the hospital and everybody loved it. We decided to expand that model and bring horses to other hospitals, schools and residential programs — to people who can’t come to us.” But then the pandemic started.

 “Just as we got our Visiting Program all ready to go, COVID happened and everything stopped,” she said. Individuals can still visit the Tewksbury barn and riding center for therapy. However, school groups and other organizations can’t come, and all visits to outside facilities are on hold.

“There is a need,” said Antonioni. “Before the pandemic, I was getting calls from hospice owners and other group homes. Their patients are suffering, often from terminal illnesses. Now, with coronavirus, they are in isolation. That’s the last thing anybody wants or needs at the end of life.” 

Recognizing these pandemic-related social- and emotional-health issues, as well as other needs, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation has awarded more than $2.9 million in COVID-relief support to local nonprofits, said Howard Amidon, Vice President for Philanthropy.

“The Foundation is here to respond to the needs of residents throughout Greater Lowell and northern Middlesex County,” he said, “And we look forward to continuing this critical work long after COVID-19 subsides.”

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