In the age of coronavirus, seniors and the people who help them are in need

In the age of coronavirus, seniors and the people who help them are in need

Many older people are lonely and the rules of social distancing makes that worse. That issue, in fact, is the target for a new group of volunteers — medical and nursing students from UCI School of Medicine. With no classes to attend, those students are working with Meals on Wheels OC in the newly created ASSIST program, an acronym that stands for Assisting & Supporting Socially Isolated Seniors through Telephoning. The program is simple: Seniors are paired with a student and can get up to a 30-minute call daily, every other day or weekly, as they desire.