26 Jun Telluride Med Center: Ways to Help Sick, Quarantined & High Risk!
The stories we will tell ourselves about this corona era — the challenges and how we overcame them, who we helped, and who came to our aid — are still being written.
Below Dr. Sharon Grundy of the Telluride Medical Center shares 8 ways to help others in need.
Dr. Sharon Grundy, Primary Care Medical Director, Telluride Medical Center.
While every aspect of our lives continue to be disrupted, the Telluride community will be able to tell a story of how we came together. Sometimes in ways that have exceeded expectations, but also possibly in other, difficult, uncomfortable, but ultimately persevering ways.
We all have a whole new scientific vocabulary — plus a new collection of words we’ve made up entirely. But many of us also are also sharing a burden of fear, anxiety and decision fatigue as we endlessly navigate how best to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19.
As cases of coronavirus increase in our community, what’s weighing on my mind — aside from our clinic’s efforts to share information, expand testing capacity and continue to offer preventive and comprehensive care to the community — is what more can I do to ensure our community comes out of this crisis stronger than we were going into it.
My heart is with the individuals who have been personally impacted by COVID-19 and need extra support during this time.
And while I know it’s easy to feel judgmental or critical during a crisis, we all can agree that what our neighbors — what this whole world (!) — needs right now is extraordinary compassion. To get the conversation started, we came up with this list:
8 ways to help your high-risk neighbors or someone in quarantine:
1. Reach out. Let people know you’re thinking of them and available to help.
2. Feed people. Food is love. It’s also majorly helpful for those who are quarantined or cannot otherwise leave their home for even essential activities.
3. Run an errand. Offer to hit the pharmacy, deliver books from the library or pick up groceries. Imagine your own To-Do list and see if you can knock something off someone else’s.
4. Be a leader. Show your community and your family what it looks like to practice radical love and non-judgement. (As a healthcare provider, let me just say this is also a very healthy lifestyle choice.)
5. Make a care package. Flowers, card games, medical supplies, snacks, magazines!
6. If you can, pay people who work for you if they’re sick and need to stay home.
7. Imagine yourself in the shoes of others — whether that be someone who is high-risk for COVID-19 complications or someone who is dealing with an active infection.
8. Volunteer. Tri-County has a system in place to connect those in need with those who can help. Apply to volunteer here.
Join me in adding to this list. Send your ideas here and we’ll continue to update the list on our site.
We’re better together you know – just so long as our together is 6 feet or more apart.
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