Merrillville seniors eager for vaccine
Coordinator hopes they realize they can’t let their guard down
Between the residents coming down into the lobby and the barrage of calls and texts, Carol Bolin and Carla Johnson were running out of things to tell them.
More than 100 of the 300 residents of AHEPA 78, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development-subsidized housing unit in Merrillville dedicated to residents 62 and older, were scheduled to receive the COVID-19 vaccine Monday, and with six buildings in the complex, the process was moving slow. Property manager Bolin and Service Coordinator Johnson did what they could to keep residents on the list calm and hopeful, but the day was starting to wear as the two kept receiving conflicting information on where their unit was in the process.
And then at 4:30 p.m., a Walgreens pharmacy technician rolled up with a cooler and the paperwork. As the residents came down one by one, the jubilation was palpable.
Ervin Scales, 68, was the first resident called to the common room, where Bolin had the pharmacist and pharmacist’s technician set up to administer 25 vaccines. After they took his temperature, he signed the release, and with a smile on his face, the pharmacist stuck Scales with a chance to be part of ending the COVID-19 pandemic at least in their unit.
“My wife and I had it. Mine was light, but my wife, it was rough on her,” Scales said. “She’s still having issues, so she’s unsure, but to me? Maybe (getting the vaccine) will help. It’s running wild out there.”
Bolin’s building has been, for all intents and purposes, locked down like a skilledcare facility since around the end of March, she said, even though it’s not designated as such. The atrium on the third floor, usually equipped with brown leather swivel chairs for hanging out and watching a snowfall, is empty, the chairs jammed into the gym next door that’s also gone unused.
The former property manager used to come in twice a month to do crafts with the residents, and there was always a long list of people because the crafts they completed were really cool, Bolin said. That, too, has been sidelined since March, as has the All-Purpose room, where everyone would come down for coffee and conversation in the morning and celebrate birthdays or other important events.
It broke Bolin’s heart to do it, but she knew she didn’t have a choice but to lock the building down, even if it meant their kids couldn’t come visit.
“One building here had eight people get sick, so I told everyone here, ‘I’m going to keep you going,’” she said. “I want everyone protected.”
But if keeping residents safe has kept them healthy or healthier at the least, Bolin, Johnson and Julie Hylek, AHEPA 78’s area manager, were loath to say anyone could be considered “thriving.”
“I’ll be sitting in my office and a resident will come by stand outside the doorway just to smile at me, and that’s really all the human contact most of them are getting right now because they can’t socialize,” Hylek said, adding that residents in another building were sitting outside their rooms, arms out and ready for the shot. “We’re their anchor, and we’re doing the best we can, but no one thought (the pandemic) was going to last this long.
“We’re trying to be cautious with courage.”
Caution, or lack thereof, is what scares Johnson. As residents left the building to run errands or smoke, Johnson gently but firmly reminded them to put on their masks to varying degrees of success.
“With all the isolation, I can see them thinking that just because they got the first shot, everything can go back to normal,” Johnson, who’d caught the virus over the summer, said. “I get that, but the first vaccine only protects you so much, so I pray getting this first vaccine doesn’t make them let their guard down and think they can just go everywhere and see everyone without their masks.
“I used to take the stairs all throughout the building, and now (because of the virus), I can’t. I don’t want them getting sick.”
Health officials announced this past week that coronavirus vaccinations would be available to residents 80 and older. Until now, health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities were the only eligible recipients.
More than 75,000 Hoosiers age 80 or older had scheduled appointments to receive free vaccines as of 4 p.m. Saturday, the department said. Hoosiers can register by calling 2-1-1 or by contacting one of Indiana’s Area Agencies on Aging for help.