Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago, many people—especially seniors—have become isolated from friends, family and activities because of various health protection measures.
One nonprofit based in Henderson—the Foundation Assisting Seniors—works every day to help alleviate seniors’ stress.
Founded in 2002 as a medical equipment-sharing service for items like walkers, shower chairs and wheelchairs, the foundation eventually expanded to offer a welfare check program called “How R U.”
The program works by offering a call service that rings subscribers daily to check in on them. If there’s no response, eventually a volunteer will come to the door of the subscriber to make sure they don’t need medical attention.
About 100 seniors in the Valley subscribe to the service, which organization founder Favil West said has been a life-saver for some.
We spoke with West, 85, to learn more about the organization. Here are highlights of our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Has the pandemic added to feelings of isolation for some older folks?
It’s been a real crusher for seniors. What we’ve found is that many seniors just kind of locked themselves in. Some still haven’t come out. Seniors depend on socialization—they need to have an interest somewhere, something that keeps them moving. Absent that, some have no reason to live. We’ve seen that there have been a lot of problems of a psychological nature that have surfaced. We can never do a lockdown again. That was the worst possible thing that could have happened for the senior community.
Aside from volunteering with the Foundation Assisting Seniors, what can people do to help the seniors in their life?
If people feel like they aren’t good enough neighbors to do that, to check in, then call us up. We can put them on our “How R U” program. Right now, I think people are afraid to be good neighbors. Here in Las Vegas, everybody is from someplace else. It can be different. For instance, East Coasters are a little more in your face. Westerners look at that and think, “Woah.” Being a good neighbor is important. When all the politicians talk about unity and getting back together, that all means nothing. What means something is if a person truly believes in supporting their neighbor. I was a fighter pilot, so a wing man was important to me. After 100 missions in Vietnam, believe me when I say I was glad to have one. People should think about that wing man concept.
Are seniors able to keep up with how rapidly technology changes the ways we communicate?
The big problem is that people change these things and everyone who makes these changes, they’re a young person. They don’t realize that probably 15% of seniors don’t get on the internet at all. Many still have flip phones. A lot of seniors, they’re able to use a smartphone and use messaging and all of it, but they won’t. And a lot of people don’t want to be embarrassed by not knowing how to go online. The fallacy is we have people who don’t know anything about seniors making decisions for seniors. They don’t ask anyone who knows anything about seniors. They might ask a 50-year-old but, good grief, when I was 50 I was running seven miles per day.
Does society value our seniors like we should?
No. The only reason a younger person is here is because we were here before them. A young man will be sitting in my shoes someday. Seniors just aren’t appreciated.
How supportive are people and businesses here when it comes to supporting nonprofits like yours?
During COVID, it was very difficult to raise money. Everybody was out there scratching the same people to raise money. In addition, and this is a personal opinion, a lot of people think if you start a foundation, you can take a big payroll for yourself. Here, we don’t get paid, none of the officers or board members. Seven different charities went down (during the pandemic). The big guys in town—United Way or Easterseals for instance—are having troubles, too. We have a strong reserve. When I set this organization up, I made sure we’d have a nice reserve. We could probably last for 15 or 20 years without getting any big support. Now, some of our donors are starting to come back, which is great. The (Gene) Haas Foundation (Editor’s note: Gene Haas was the founder of Haas Automation) has been a big supporter.
With all the nonprofits and charities out there to support, do people often think of a senior foundation?
No. Many don’t look at seniors as people they want to donate to. People will donate for kids and pets. Giving to the homeless is also very popular. Way down on the list, you’ll find seniors. I think people don’t want to see that a senior is what’s going to happen to them in time. If you’re young, you’re going to eventually have gray hair or no hair, then you’ll get all these doggone wrinkles. Then the muscle that you had will be gone. Looking at a senior means looking at a person’s own mortality.
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