It is well known that one of the risk factors for death in the elderly is loss of their important social groups, as friends, family, and pets die or are moved away.

Still not convinced? Take some of your shut in time to read this book, The Blue Zones (no that’s not an affiliate link).

Many in Rochester and across the country are going through the early phases of social isolation, currently referred to as social distancing, as we try to slow and reduce the spread of COVID19.

This will be even more wearing on the elderly, shut-ins who were already dependent on people to visit them, and those who aren’t comfortable with technological methods of “visiting”.

So while you’re working from home, and without a water cooler break in sight, use the opportunity to get up out of your non-ergonomic home computer chair, and pick up the phone. Call your Mom, call your Dad, your siblings, your Grandma.

If you can stand to sit in that non-ergonomic chair after your work from home workday is done, you can use electronic options to contact your friends or family. Some of my computer geek friends are hanging out in a Slack channel that’s based on the local geographic region.

If you hadn’t already gotten Grandpa to use technology to do video chats on your preferred video messaging system, now’s the time to try. That will let him get valuable bonding time with the grandkids, and let you have an eyeball on his face and surroundings to get an idea if he’s coping okay.

Send an email. If your schedule and your loved one’s don’t connect, at least when you’re burning the midnight oil they’ll find a pick me up waiting to great them when they start their early bird day.

Keep at least 6 feet away, but don’t let 6 feet become infinity. “Right” or “wrong” (and it’s neither, it’s just how we are), humans are social creatures, and being cut off from the world now (while it might reduce our stress from the standpoint of maybe then we’re also not hitting refresh on the news feeds) isn’t going to help us handle our stress or anxiety levels.

Now get up out of that chair, and go call your tribe. Or at least call your Mom.