BOSTON (WHDH) - Jens Dao was laid off from his job delivering food to seniors three weeks ago, but that hasn’t kept him from continuing to bring meals and attention to his clients.
“I have to do something. and doing this makes me feel more happy,” Dao said.
Dao is one of several program aides at the SarahCare medical adult daycare center in Dorchester who were laid off when the state closed the facility three weeks ago.
But he and many of his colleagues decided to volunteer and continue to help the center’s 130 elderly and frail seniors — including many who have medical and mental disabilities — who suddenly had no place to go during the day for services and companionship.
SarahCare executive director Alla Shlosman said “there were a lot of tears” and many of the seniors the center serves were frightened.
“The ones that have no caregivers, they were afraid that they were going to be abandoned by us, by everyone else,” Shlosman said.
So instead of the seniors coming to SarahCare, SaraCare is going to them.
“They’re really happy to see us … some of them, they’re standing around in the front door or in the window just looking to see if we are there or not,” Dao said.
Dao and the other volunteers prepare and deliver meals, shop for the seniors, get their medicines and check in on them regularly. Dao said he’s prepared to continue volunteering his as long as the crisis lasts, and Shlosman said his and other volunteers’ efforts were making a big impact.
“Just asking them questions about their well being, their mental health … just having a conversation with them because they’re isolated,” Shlosman said. “It says a lot about the staff that we have here…. it says a lot that they didn’t want to abandon our elderly and fragile people.”
“We want elderly people to know they are not alone and that there’s always someone next to them and that cares,” Dao said.
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