- [Joleene] Tonight on WBPS Weekly Inside the Stories Isolation and loneliness among the senior population, we delve into the problem and how to address it with the Office for the Aging in Albany.

And visit Zenda Farms in Clayton where visitors connect with the agricultural heritage of the region.

Also, Oswego County poet Laura Donnelley visits the WBPS studios with her wit and words.

Your stories, your region coming up right now on WBPS Weekly Inside the Stories (excited music plays) - [Announcer] WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, the J M McDonald Foundation, and the Dr. D Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Additional funding from the New York State Education Department.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WBPS Weekly Inside the Stories, I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

A staggering number of senior people in New York State live alone and are isolated, but it doesn't have to be this way.

As part of WBPS's Aging Together in New York project, we visit the New York State Office for the Aging in Albany to discuss how we as a community can step up for our elders.

(music plays) We are at the Office of the Aging in Albany, New York.

We are with Greg Olson, the director of the New York State Office of the Aging.

And we are gonna discuss something that is very powerful extremely important, and that is addressing elder and senior isolation.

It's an issue that often goes unchecked and I'm hoping that this conversation can change that.

So, first of all, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

- Thanks for having me It's an important topic.

- What is the New York State Office of the Aging for those who may not be aware?

- So, we oversee a network of 59 county offices for the aging, work with about 1,200 community organizations.

And our mission is to help older adults stay as independent as possible for as long as possible.

So, we serve older adults about 1.5 million a year but we also work with families 'cause many family members are taking care of an older adult but we also have over 300,000 grandparents that are taking care of grandkids.

So, that's our job.

We're in the community help people stay at home happy, healthy, live with dignity.

- Let's talk about depression and feelings of isolation in older citizens.

It's very real.

Has it always been this way?

Has it gotten worse recently or do we see more of it now because social media is shining a light on it?

- It's all three, yes.

So, the original our original charge is the 1965 Older Americans Act and combating isolation is actually in there.

And there's a variety of things that we've done for 40 50 years to address isolation, getting people out to a community setting, providing transportation, friendly visiting in the home, telephone trees, things like that.

Did it get worse with COVID?

No question.

And not just for older adults.

Actually, older adults are a little bit more resilient.

It's been equally, if not worse for children and for middle-aged individuals.

So, this is not an older adult phenomenon but certainly does impact a lot of older people who are living alone out there.

And there's a lot of them.

- Speaking of living alone, I'm sure this is obviously one of the factors that contributes to it but can you talk to me about more factors that contribute to the loneliness and isolation?

- Yeah, I mean your life when you get older can change significantly.

Death of a spouse, not working anymore losing those social relationships at work, I mean that's a huge part of what we all do.

Could be my own physical functioning, could be a stroke.

So, there's, there's physical things, there's economic things and you know that really has a big impact on people as they get older.

They're seeing their friends dying, looking at your own mortality.

So, those things can definitely depress you and further isolate you.

We have a million people nationwide that give up their keys every year for a variety of reasons.

You know, anywhere in New York State around the country residential homes and commercial are not together.

We've sprawl and suburban living have really isolated people.

And when you don't have access to your car you are extraordinarily isolated.

- Can we touch on that in rural areas it seems it can be more complicated for our seniors.

Should neighbors watch out?

How do you get neighbors to become involved?

- Yeah, I mean a lot of these solutions to be honest with you, are so no-brainers, right?

Picking up the phone if you have somebody in your family or a neighbor.

I mean, when I grew up, I grew up right around here, 30 40 years ago, you knew who all your neighbors were.

It is not like that anymore.

People don't know who their next door neighbor is or you know, you're afraid to engage.

So, there's some very simple things you can do.

Reach out to somebody, make a phone call, ask somebody to go out for a cup of coffee.

But then there's a lot of other things that we've implemented using technology to really combat isolation as well.

- Not every senior has a car, as you stated.

Not every senior is able to get around, for those who can are there places they can go?

Can they remain physically active?

Can they engage in new hobbies?

Talk to me about that.

- Anybody can do that anywhere, anytime.

And those are things that we offer through our network.

But the communities do as well.

There's community calendars of events.

There's socialization activities.

You can go to a senior center.

We do provide transportation for those that don't have it to get out to those types of things.

So, again, not an age specific thing.

There are a lot of of things going on in the community that I think people need to be educated about and can certainly go.

But there's also opportunities, again with the expansion of technology and just really smart people developing really smart tools that can balance if you may not have a human being in your life with finding human beings through other means.

- This is why we're doing this because you're educating us and one of the things you said that I didn't even realize is you can get transportation to these folks to get them to senior centers.

So, there's more socialization.

Do you find them participating?

- Yeah, the pandemic has had a huge impact.

We, most of our senior centers across the state are open but we still have a quite a few rural counties in upstate New York that didn't, for safety reasons have also lost staff and volunteers.

So,, I think that there's also a fear, and rightly so with the flu which has been really bad this year, RSV, which, you know seemed to come outta nowhere.

And now this new variant of COVID that, you know, people are making wise, healthy decisions not to go back into settings that may get them sick and kill them.

So, we're seeing people going back but there's also less people who are going back because of some of those fears.

- So, Greg, some of these seniors, as you stated earlier they lose their sense of purpose and that is a massive challenge.

What are some of the benefits of them working a part-time job or even volunteering?

- Yeah, and that goes back to the work thing.

And you're absolutely right when you retire, you know people are excited to play golf or go on a trip or do whatever.

Whatever might be in your- the front of your mind but then that ends and what do you do every single day?

There's purpose to work, there's purpose to volunteering.

We're so centric on work in this culture, so people could go back to work.

What you do is you create another support system, right?

The people that you work with, it could lead to, you know dinners and coffees and things like that.

Volunteering is huge.

What a great way to give back.

We have a million volunteers in New York that provide over 495 million hours of service at an economic value of 13.8 billion.

Many organizations are looking for people to help provide service.

You could interact with anybody of any different age, but you're absolutely right.

Having a sense of purpose is a game changer for depression, loneliness, anxiety versus not, when you stay connected - Are our seniors proactive?

Are you seeing this when your case workers go out?

- You know, they are, but it's like any group there's going to be people that are not active will sit and not do anything for a variety of reasons and have a negative impact.

And then there's people that step up and, you know that's the nature of any individual person.

You can't kind of group them together.

It's kind of all over the map.

- Let's talk about one of your programs that's delivering meals.

How does that help these seniors?

How do they get involved with it?

- Well, I mean that, that's critical and we always need- So, let's talk about the value of the meals and we'll talk about the value of the volunteers because we would not- We run the largest nutrition program in the country.

In New York State, we have over 2,400 home delivered meal routes.

And so in order for somebody to get a home delivered meal they have to not be able to shop, prepare, or have somebody that can help them.

So, they're very frail and you know, food is medicine.

Without these meals, these individuals would not be able to stay at home.

They're all registered- RD certified at the highest levels.

But to make the food and deliver, we rely heavily on volunteers to make the meals, to deliver them in most parts of the state and to be the check-in.

I mean, for an older adult, getting a meal might be the only person they see all week.

And that's sad, but it's true.

So, we could always use volunteers to help get those meals out the door or in a congregate center.

- For caregivers taking care of their loved ones, it seems like it would be obvious when they would recognize it's time to step in and get help.

Do you- When people call the office are they struggling with where to begin?

- They always are.

So, what we say is, you know, I hear all the time, you know your network doesn't do a good job doing outreach.

That's not true at all.

You don't need what you don't need until you need it, right?

I don't need to know about STAR property tax rebate until I buy a home.

I don't need to know about TAP and Pell until I'm sending my kid to college.

That's how this works as well.

Couple of things older adults have the right to make their own decisions.

So, a lot of times we will talk about what we have available.

We could do an assessment to see, you know what their strengths are where they might need some assistance but then it's ultimately up to them whether they choose the service or not.

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

For a caregiver, oftentimes it's crisis driven.

You know, mom or dad's in the hospital they're being discharged this afternoon who's gonna take care of them at home?

And then hopefully, you know what we always tell people is you don't have to know all the services we provide but the first place to call is your county office for aging.

They're not selling a product.

They're selling objectivity and help.

And then the customer can decide.

- Well said.

What are evidence-based interventions and how do they play a role in senior care?

- Yeah, so evidence-based interventions are things that if you stick to the fidelity of the way that the program was designed and implemented, so all, you know, steps A through C that you'll yield a result.

So, there's a lot of evidence-based interventions things that help you control diabetes, falls and injuries, strength training, powerful tool for caregivers.

There's lots of them.

One is the- One of the most popular ones, it's really important, it's called chronic disease self-management.

We know that chronic diseases are the most preventable but also the most manageable conditions people have.

It's gonna cost a trillion dollars by 2045.

So, how do you control your hypertension, your blood pressure, your weight, right?

That's the types of things that chronic disease self-management and some of these evidence-based interventions do.

What that's designed to do again is help people stay safer by being more healthy so that you can stop them from declining where they wind up in the emergency room.

And if you're able to control your diabetes and your blood sugar and you know your blood pressure, that's gonna yield positive results as you get older.

- So, we need to be proactive as caregivers, we need to be proactive as seniors - We all do.

We need to, all of us we need to eat as well as we can based on our budgets.

You need to exercise, you need to not smoke.

60% of all healthcare costs have nothing to do with healthcare diagnosis.

It has to do with access to food.

Am I exercising?

Am I smoking?

My built environment, air quality water quality, lead paint, things like that.

- Very good.

Thank you so much for your time, we appreciate it.

- My pleasure.

- This interview is part of the WPBS TV's Aging Together in New York project and is produced in association with the New York State Office for the Aging and the New York State Education Department.

For more interviews and stories on senior isolation please visit wpbstv.org.

Next up, a hidden gem right here in Jefferson County.

Zenda Farms is unique to the Thousand Islands with an interesting past and noteworthy architecture.

Now open to the public, it's a destination with trails for walking and observing nature.

Take a look.

(music plays with bird calls) - [Narrator 1] Surrounded by 405 acres of grasslands, wetlands, forest and hay meadows, Zenda Farms Preserve located just outside of Clayton, New York and operated by the Thousand Islands Land Trust has a very unique history.

- In 1915, American actor James Hackett purchased the property and titled the farm Zenda.

After his favorite role, "The Prisoner of Zenda".

Hackett operated the farm for many years until in 1939, Merle Youngs purchased the property.

The farm maintained dairy and later beef operations until the 1960s.

- Zenda Farms is one of our more well known signature preserve.

Zenda Farms itself was acquired by the Land Trust back in 1991, and we originally acquired the property from Lois Jean and John McFarland that came as a donation to the Land Trust.

With its iconic Jamesway buildings.

The Jamesway buildings are very unique and specifically on Zenda Farms this is the only complete set of Jamesway agricultural buildings specific to dairy left that we know of in the country.

And so following that acquisition TILT worked with a group of individuals who specialized in the restoration of these types of barns - [Narrator] Built primarily between the 1920s and 30s.

Jamesway buildings are steel clad buildings with a wood frame beneath.

Structures on the property include a silo, dairy barn.

hay barn, a creamery, and a turkey house.

They're extremely weather resistant but require quite a bit of maintenance.

- So, the Jamesway buildings are very unique.

You don't see this type of agricultural building throughout the landscape here in the north country or even across New York.

At the time, they were some of the most state-of-the-art agricultural buildings on the market.

You know, as you can see, the steel buildings they're made of steel.

They were insulated with some of the state-of-the-art insulation board really providing a high level of comfort for animals and even the farm workers, you know, as the facility operated.

They even went as far in Zenda Farms' Jamesway buildings of putting electric grids in the windows that zapped flies.

You know, they wanted to ensure that the the dairy cows, you know were very comfortable, weren't being pestered by, you know, any sort of insects or flies at the time.

And if you go back to, you know really the ethos of Merle Youngs, he wanted and desired to have anything that he did to be top of the line quality and ultimately the best.

And that's really what Zenda Farms embodied back in the day as a state-of-the-art dairy.

The creamery itself was one of the first pasteurizing facilities in New York State.

And it's really because Merle, he was... you- kind of in the pharmaceutical industry as an entrepreneur.

The Youngs Rubber company is actually well known today as the Trojan Rubber Company.

So, what he would do is, you know, after, you know long weeks in the city, you know, he would bring guests and clients up to the river to host them and to kind of show them just the uniqueness of not only Zenda, but the entire Thousand Islands.

So, this is one way that he networked with folks but Zenda was his... it was his hobby farm.

It was his true passion and he really put a lot of love, care and even financial resources back into the farm.

- [Narrator] Over the past decade TILT has worked with donors, community leaders and volunteers to expand the use of Zenda Farms.

Envisioning Zenda Farms as a community hub.

TILT has developed over two miles of all pedestrian trails.

- Like all of our preserves Zenda offers multiple opportunities for recreation whether that's walking your dog, taking your family for a walk, or riding bicycles.

So, the possibilities are limitless.

Bird watchers really enjoy looking out over our meadow.

You can look for insects.

And we also have a community garden that you can volunteer in.

The community garden was started here as a way to give people an opportunity to engage with the landscape, learn about where their food comes from, teach their kids and have a wonderful, delicious, healthy table spread.

- We grow tomatoes, carrots, beans.

A huge variety almost a hundred different items and herbs, strawberries, raspberries.

We pick what we want, the members do.

And then what's left over we'll take it and donate it to the food bank or to the Senior Citizen Center in Clayton.

And so many people come and just say what a beautiful garden it is.

I invite them in to walk around and it's something to be totally proud of.

Over these years it's come a long way.

Over the years and it's just so many compliments from people that come in and wanna help and wanna join.

- An interesting fact about the Zenda Community Garden is actually the longest standing community garden in Jefferson County.

That was started in 2009.

You know, we've got a lot of future ideas and plans for the farm itself and ultimately we just want to give it back to the community and the people that live, work, and play not only in Clayton, but the Thousand Islands.

- [Narrator] If you're interested in participating in the garden, just call the TILT office and ask about joining.

You'll need to pay a small fee and you'll be expected to work in the garden at least two hours a week.

- The future is as bright as our barns.

We have a lot of dreams and goals for Zenda and there are really exciting things on the future that can't give away just yet but we'll be hearing a little buzz.

- Poetry can be defined as the heartbeat of powerful storytelling.

Tonight we bring you the talents of Laura Donnelley an Oswego County based writer and poet whose imagery and expression is beyond moving.

(music plays) - Hi, my name is Laura Donnelly.

I am a poet originally from Michigan.

I now live in Oswego, New York and I'm gonna be reading the poem "The Last Supper" from my book, "Midwest Gothic".

Towards the end of my work on this book I had the opportunity to travel back to the Northern Michigan area where my family's from and spend some time with a great aunt there.

My poem, "The Last Supper", comes from that experience.

The Last Supper Great-Aunt Gert spreads the table with thick, sliced tomatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, meatballs, white bread, corn on the cob she picked from the garden we passed when we turned up the driveway.

An angel food cake rests in its round tin.

"My boys take care of me," says Aunt Gert, who lives alone at 91.

At 18, she married Grandpa Phillip's brother.

"Don't ever live with your in-laws," she laughs glancing towards the ceiling.

The room upstairs where she and Otto and the baby all slept.

She'll be dead in six months but today she is sharper than either of us.

We've come for an old woman's stories and she has been waiting.

She tells how the barn collapsed like a lung.

The milking tanks lost beneath shingles.

It wasn't the lightning but wind that took it.

"I'm sorry," she says, "should have warned you on the phone before you came."

But remember that storm in the fifties the whole herd struck current bouncing between somewhere a newspaper clipping.

"Remember, remember," she urges my mother "when Grandpa Toby ran off the banker with a pitchfork?

And that preacher who treated his family so bad.

The whole town knew."

She stares hard at my mother.

We don't talk of Uncle Otto's affair.

We don't talk of how my mother fled this place.

We know, we know.

And the knowing swells like the chainsaw song of cicadas buzzing through heat.

It grows large around the milk jug on the table and the TV left droning from the next room.

It grows large as summer unzipped from the earth.

How it won't be contained, it fills and takes.

"Soon," Aunt Gert says, "but I am not afraid."

She sighs herself up from the long kitchen table.

She will not let us leave empty.

- Before we wrap things up for tonight, here's a look at what's happening in your community on both sides of the border (music plays with overlapping indistinct conversations) (upbeat, energetic music plays) That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Please join us next time for a fresh look Inside the Stories.

The senior population is grossly undervalued.

Statistics from the office for the Aging in Albany tell a different story.

And it's the same story in Canada, seniors in their golden years contribute more to the economy than the working class.

Also, SAMMY Award winner Cam Caruso brings his talents to the WBPS studios.

Meantime, we want to tell your story.

If you or someone in your community has something meaningful, historic, inspirational, or educational to share you've got to contact us.

Please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That is it for now, everyone.

We will see you again next time.

Goodnight.

- [Announcer] WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource, offering confidential business advice, for those interested starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

Additional funding provided by the J M McDonald Foundation, the Dr. D Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation, and the New York State Education Department.

- "Don't ever live with your in-laws," she laughs glancing towards the ceiling.

The room upstairs where she and Otto and the baby all slept.

She'll be dead in six months but today she is sharper than either of us.

We've come for an old woman's stories and she has been waiting.

(light music plays)